The Azure Familiar
by Gatecrasher12
Summary: When Louise said she'd summon a familiar that would be 'divine and beautiful, wise and powerful', that's exactly what she got. To bad her new familiar isn't an easy one to push around. The knight of the Azure Sky is truely powerful and will show her that
1. Decending Sky

I was disoriented when I landed roughly on soft grass. Smoke was cutting off all my visibility and stinging my eyes while also trying to choke my lungs as I coughed. Sitting up, ignoring the pain that laced up my back, I was ever grateful that my very sensitive wings were sealed away inside my body. I took a moment to look around as the breeze cleared away the smoke from around me, tensing, ready to fight if I had to. I found myself in the sunny courtyard of an unfamiliar castle of some kind. When I fell out of that odd green summoning oval thing I half expected to fall out in the midst of a fight or something - I myself, when the art of summoning was still available, used to summon during battle. I had not expected to find myself in some castle's courtyard surrounded by a large group of what looked like unsuspecting, if snickering, teenage students.

At the sight of my surroundings, however, I began to allow myself to relax a bit. Even though I was a bit curious, when the beginnings of laughter began to sound before becoming uproarious.

After my initial sweep of the area, my eyes had come to land on the person who stood before me, the one who summoned me away from my home.

Tiny. That was among the first things I thought of when I looked at her. She had a cute face, had a small, petite body frame with a head of long, somewhat wavy, pink hair and large brown eyes that were currently staring at him, wide in shocked disbelief. She wore a white blouse and plait skirt with matching stockings and shoes. There was also a red necktie at her throat held together by a gold clip, and a black cloak hanging off her shoulders.

The girl looked at me as if I had slapped her. When she opened her mouth to speak to me, if reluctantly… I understood nothing of the incomprehensible tongue she spoke. The phonics was vaguely similar to my own native language, yet the words and sentence structure themselves went over my head.

Out of the crowd, one of the students, a well endowed redhead girl with richly tanned skin who wore her uniform in a somewhat provocative way, stepped forward, gaining my summoner's unwilling attention. This new girl said something that sounded almost cruelly mocking and laughed, causing most of the other students to also laugh. My little summoner bristled like a cat and said something in rebuke. Other members of the crowd began pitching in their own little quips and the laughter grew louder. I watched as the pinkette's face grew red with embarrassment and rage before she exploded and yelled something loudly that caused everyone to quiet down. She then turned to an older, bolding, spectacles-wearing gentleman who wore long purple mage's robe with a well worn carrier bag across his left shoulder and a simple looking staff loosely clutched in one hand, and started ranting in a desperate, pleading tone. The man's sympathetic negative reply caused the girl to plead harder before he spoke to her again in a much more firm voice that left no room for argument.

The pink summoner looked at me again as I sat there in the grass watching the proceedings, this time with a half resigned air about her, saying something defiant, making everyone around us laugh at her again, which made her seethe.

As the girl and man continued to argue, my attention briefly flickered around me once more in a more critical way. I now noticed that the outfit my summoner wore seem to be a female uniform since all the other girls in the courtyard were all also wearing it. The boys wore their version of it too. I also noted the wide variety of creatures, some of which I recognized as simple animals while others were slightly different versions of beasts that inhabited the fields and forests of my world, that were paired off with the students. I tensed minutely at the sight of the large blue and white scaled dragon collapsed lazily next to a small blue haired girl calmly reading a book, belatedly nonchalant about the beast's close proximity to her person.

Logic dictated that my summoning to this place seemed to be part of a group ritual or ceremony of some kind. Likely a summoning of familiars. I gave a subtle sigh of irritation in realization. If that was the fact of the matter, then things just got more complicated for me.

The mage spoke again in the same, more final, and somewhat threatening tone. My summoner seemed to finally cave immediately as the fight in her drained as she turned back to me unhappily and glared, face flushed and chin up. When she spoke to me again, it was an embarrassed sneer as she lifted her wand.

((O0O))

For all her boasting and claims of summoning a 'divine and beautiful, wise and powerful' familiar that would raise her standings in the view of her peers and finally help her rid herself of that wretched nickname 'Zero', this was not what she pictured her familiar would be like. Far from it in fact. Louise's new summon had, however, at least got one part of it right. Whoever he was, he was certainly handsome. He had an almost aristocratic face, pale unblemished flesh, and snow white shaggy hair that was barely held away from his face by a thin purple headband. His sharp violet eyes seemed to take in everything and miss nothing. He wore a short sleeved, wide necked navy shirt with light colored pants and dark leather boots, he also had bandages wrapped around his forearms, a belt hanging off his hip that had a small cloth pouch made from some king of odd shimmering color-changing material, and a small marble sized blue crystal hanging around his neck framed by feathers and beads.

But all the same! No matter how good looking he is, he was still a PEASANT! How could she, a daughter from the powerful and noble house of the Valliere family, have a peasant man for a familiar! It just wasn't fair! Not only that, but in order to finish the ritual, she would have to… kiss him! Kiss HIM, a peasant! Worse yet, it would be her first kiss! She would have to give away her first kiss to a peasant!

Oh, how badly wanted to try to resummon again to correct this mistake, but with Professor Colbert ordering her to either finish the ritual or be expelled, what choice does she have? To either live with the shame of having a peasant for a familiar for the rest of her life, or be expelled and bring shame to the Valliere family for all time as the only member to ever be kicked out of the Tristian Academy of Magic.

"I guess I have no choice." Decision in mind, Louise sighed piteously before she lifting her chin and glared down at the quiet man. He raised an unimpressed fine brow at her while Kirche, that Germanian bimbo, called out mocking encouragement, which caused a stab of anger to shoot through her to add to her embarrassment.

"You should be thankful for this. Normally someone of noble birth would never do like this for a peasant." she told him as haughtily as she could as she raised her wand and began the final step of the summoning ritual. "My name is Louise Francoise Lu Blanc de La Valliere," she waved her wand at him before kneeling down between the man's legs, bringing her closer to him and allowing her to look into his now suspiciously narrowed eyes. "Oh Pentagon that rules the five powers, bless this individual… and make him my familiar." she invoked with a grimace and blush as she reached around his neck and leaned in, sealing the contract with a kiss.

The man looked at her with wide eyes, in shock at her sheer audacity, as Louise pulled away. The pink haired girl looked at his scandalized face, still blushing, as the professor approached and complimented, "Very well, the contract has been completed and the bond has been made."

Louise stood and backed away just before he new familiar hissed in pain.

((O0O))

Hot magic was rushing through me as if someone was pouring liquid fire in my veins. I clenched my teeth stubbornly, refusing to cry out beyond my initial hiss of pain. I could take physical pain easily, as I had been conditioned to, but magically induced pain, however, wasn't as easy to throw off. My own magic was clashing with whatever was invading my body in self-defense. The internal ethereal battle was taking its toll on me as my body began heating up so much I was visibly letting off steam as a bright light overtook my right hand, the source of where the foreign magic was coming from. Looking at it, I could see a runic inscription of some kind burning itself into my flesh.

It was a contract, I knew it just had to be because it could be nothing else.

I grimaced as the pain grew and looked up at the girl and older man staring at me and my new rune in fascination as he said something I could still couldn't begin to understand and comprehend even as my world began going black.

((O0O))

When I woke up next I found myself laid out on a pile of hay. Sitting up, I looked around and saw myself in a rather nice room that reminded me of some of the more pricier inns I used to stay in when traveling back in my home world. The wide space was illuminated by warm candle light as the nearby window showed the darkness of night outside.

Just then someone spoke. My eye snapped to my right and saw my tiny summoner standing over me, arms crossed, wand in hand, and face the picture of resigned irritation. She announced something in that same haughty tone I was beginning to grow aggravated with as she walked over to the wardrobe. I know when someone was demeaning me when I heard it. Seriously, she may have summoned and slapped a contract on my hand, but I had never allowed anyone save my teachers in my boyhood years to talk down to me, not by anyone. Even my Lady never spoke out of turn with me, but that was mostly because she respected my position as a knight and one of her chosen protectors. She also was too good and genial to act like some snobby brat. Yet here I was allowing this girl to do it, if only because I did not understand her words.

I stood as she hung up her cloak and set aside her wand. "Tell me girl, who are you and where am I?" I asked, looking around further, not quite noticing her now state of undress.

The reply to my inquiry was her blouse and skirt thrown in my face, the articles of clothing wrapping around my head, and what was an obvious order. I removed her clothes from my head and gave an annoyed glare. She stood there with her fists on her hips in nothing more but a pale pink, sheer chemise and panties. I turned my head away. While the little pink mage didn't have much of anything to look at, I was still a knight and chivalry wasn't dead with me. "If you are trying some weird seduction technique on me, you are both obviously going about it the wrong way and a few too many years too young for me, young miss." I snarked coolly.

She looked at me in confusion and I honestly didn't blame her for it. This was the first time I had spoken since my trip between worlds so she never realized we wouldn't be able to understand each other. But apparently she was able to at least pick up on my witticism despite the language barrier between us and yelled in offence. She snatched up her wand and spoke an incantation and I found myself at the center of a pathetically weak explosive spell. When the aftereffects of the spell cleared away, I was still standing there relatively unharmed, covered in soot.

This girl was obviously short tempered. I couldn't help but think of another short fused woman with pink hair I knew.

"My, my," I said dryly. "such a violent summoner I have. So unladylike."

"I understood that!" she said, then bristled. "And what do you mean 'so unladylike'!"

I blinked in surprise. "Interesting. That was quite a forceful translation spell."

She sagged and groaned in despondent. "That was supposed to be a silencing spell." she admitted and I couldn't keep from sweat dropping at the confession. "Another failure." this time she muttered to herself. "I suppose now that we can understand one another, introductions are in order, familiar."

I looked her in the eye coolly, unimpressed with the condescending way she called me familiar, and said, "Very well. My name I Balmung." She nodded in understanding. "Now tell me, you are…?" I trailed off for her to finish.

"Hmph, I am Louise Francoise Lu Blanc de La Valliere." she informed with crossed arms. "And I will not allow a familiar, let alone a lowly peasant, to take such an informal tone with me!" she then stated to herself in despair, "Why does my familiar have to be a commoner peasant? Couldn't I have summoned something powerful and majestic like a dragon or a griffin? I wanted something cool like that!"

My eye twitched as I inwardly seethed, quietly taking the time to slip out the door as she ranted her pity-party. Whatever. I wasn't going to sit and listen to a childish belittling. I know when I wasn't wanted or welcomed. My long strides took me far away from her room fast as I walked through the corridors and down a flight of steps to the lower floors. All the while, I had to keep reminding myself of my mission, why I had volunteered myself to be called here in this new world and put up with such childish foolishness. In all truth, I didn't have to come to this strange world. Kite, Orca, or even Blackrose could very easily fit the criteria of the summon spell that girl wove. She asked for something that was 'divine and beautiful, wise and powerful', all four of us had that. The 'divine' aspect came from our blessings from Lady Aura, we were all physically 'beautiful' in our own ways, our 'wisdom' comes from both our accelerated age and experiences - despite our youthful appearances we weren't as mortal as we started out as in life -, and as for 'powerful', that went without saying. Not many can stand against evil goddesses and god-like monsters and their minions and still walk away alive in one piece.

I only just reached the threshold of the next floor when I noticed voices. "Would you like to try one of my soufflés, Guiche? I've been told I'm very good at baking them." a girl said hopefully.

"I would be honored to sample some." a boy's voice answered in what could pass as a grandly charming way.

I gave an inaudible sigh at the scene I had stumbled on. The pair were standing at what would likely be his or her door. The boy I recognized vaguely as one of the students from earlier during the summoning ritual. He had been the one kneeling with a half submerged giant mole. He had well cared for wavy blond hair and blue eyes and wore a frilly poet's shirt with purple trousers with a black cape while holding a false rose. The young girl had mid-length brown hair and eyes a lighter shade of violet than my own and wore a uniform similar to Louise's, except her cloak was brown. I couldn't place her like I could her companion.

He had an arm around her, pulling her closer to him. "Ah, you mean it?" she gushed happily, a becoming flush across her cheeks.

"But of course, Katie. I can not tell lies in front of your eyes." he smiled as he waxed poetically, showing off his pearly whites in a come hither look. Sparkle would not look out of place around him. His lines were good, I'll concede, but had too much of a scripted feel to them.

"Oh, Lord Guiche…" I could practically see the hearts about her.

"Can you not see how I feel for you? I hide them not from you." I almost felt like gagging at the display of false 'young love'. Having enough of listening to such rabble, I walked passed them. The boy, Guiche, finally seemed to take not of my presence. "Hmm? Well, well, it's that commoner peasant. Louise's familiar." he spoke out, bringing that Katie girl's attention to me as well.

"Really?" Katie looked at me more closely. She seemed to blush a bit at the sight of my looks - not a reaction I was unfamiliar with - before turning back to Guiche. "He's the one? There was quite the stir among us first years because of him." I heard her say before Guiche added, "Yes, he fainted after his summoning so we had to levitate him to Louise's dorm room."

I rolled my eyes and ignored him. This, he seemed to notice and called after me in an indignant tone as I kept walking. "What a rude peasant you are. To trouble us nobles into helping you without a word of thanks. How boorish commoners are these days."

"Yes, thank you. Good bye." I answered shortly, disappearing around the corner, never once stopping the entire time.

((O0O))

Louise ran down the steps as quickly as she could without risking a fall. As she came to the first floor she saw Guiche and his new girl of the week hanging on his arm, some underclassmen she didn't know.

"Oh Louise, your familiar just passed through a few moments ago." the blond fop informed.

"Don't just stand there! Go help me catch him!" she ordered, panting. She wasn't used to running so fast. "He ran away!"

"I'd expect nothing less." Guiche said with a smirk. "Why should I? He's your familiar. Can't keep him on a leash?"

"Just help me!"

Guiche gave a dramatic sigh. "It would seem I have no choice but to once more offer my aid this damsel in distress."

((O0O))

Louise and Guiche reached the common hall just a few minutes after Balmung had left it behind. There were only two people currently occupying the space. Sitting closely together at the fountain in the middle of the room, yet headless of their couple's embraces as they stared after the doorway on the opposite side of the room was Kirche and, like with Guiche earlier, some nameless upperclassmen boy.

"He had to have come through here!" Louise groused.

Kirche turned to look at Louise and Guiche in question. "Hey, what are you two doing? Did something happen?"

Guiche gave Kirche an amused look as he answered, "Oh, it's so amusing-"

"ENOUGH! He's getting away!" Louise cut the blond off as she ran past.

Guiche chuckled. "Oh, all right." he waved at Kirche and called over his shoulder as he continued the hunt, "I'll tell you some other time!" Kirche and her boy toy blinked after them before raising to follow after.

((O0O))

Balmung sighed as he stepped out into the cool night air and walked across the lawn. He had managed to get halfway across when his next step faltered and he found himself rising into the air. He was surprised and flailed a bit as he suddenly became airborne without the use of his wings. He could feel bands of magic wrapped around him as he hovered more than a dozen feet off the ground. As he started floating back the way he came, Guiche's voice rang out, "Just give yourself up, peasant familiar."

Looking down over his shoulder, he spied, much to his chagrin, Louise and Guiche. The blond waved his rose in the air and Bulmung's body followed the motion. "This is the second time I've had to help Louise for you."

Kirche laughed as she and he upperclassmen companion came upon the spectacle. "You must not be a good master if your familiar ran away." she commented.

Louise glared at the taller girl before giving her familiar a hard stare, contemplating how best to punish him.

"I was not running away." Balmung muttered to himself before he looked up at the two moons floating in the sky, one was small and pink while the other was large and blue and hovering over the smaller one almost protectively. In a way, it was like the two heavenly figures were symbolizing his new relationship with his summoner. "This is going to be a long mission." he said dourly.


	2. Familiar Origins

_**PLEASE READ! Author's Notes: Hello Everyone! Now I know I didn't put this up on my first chapter, I was in a bit of a rush to post and forgot to write it.**_

_**Anyway, I writing this in order to explain how my brain was working when I conjured this little number of a fic. I've so far received a few reviews and some are asking about Balmung and why he isn't an avatar of the video game, "The World." The answer is - and please keep an open mind - in my most random of thoughts, before I began writing this I asked myself "'Crasher how the hell do you pull a computer game avatar into the real world while merging it with its player?" Quite frankly, I couldn't think of a good plausible answer. I could always trap Balmung-sama's mind in the game, but then when Louise summons him, it'd be his player's empty body going. My solution, what if "The World" in its R:2 format was the real world? I thought about that for a while and realized it seemed like a good way to go. I knew I'd get a few questions and misconceptions over it, but I wanted to try it. So in short, "The World" isn't a game but a real world (dimension) all its own, its not Earth, and its not part of the world Halkeginia is part of.**_

_**Also, be forewarned, I have to do some twisting on certain .hack/ events and in-game backstories as well as threw in my own little concepts and integrate a few aspects of the Epitaph of Twilight in order to make the plot as seamless as possible to give it a 'real-world' standpoint for the fic. So don't flame me over it.**_

_**I also received complaints about my "cut and paste" approach. Give me a break people! A lot of fics start out that way with a few deviants before major changes are made. And that was only the introduction chapter too. Its not like I'm gonna totally stick to the cannon. The general events, maybe, but by the time I'm done with this fic, there will a lot of differences, so bare with me here.**_

**_Now then. Please read ahead to see what I mean. Enjoy!_**

* * *

((O0O))

Early Morning, Twilight Keep

((O0O))

"So it seems the time has come." Balmung said calmly to himself as he watched a large green oval of light suddenly appear from nowhere in the center of his quarters at Twilight Keep, the fortress guild home of the Twilight Knights. The room itself was more like a studio apartment having a single open space that served as both his living room and bedroom with a small kitchenette tucked in the corner. The only thing that had any separating walls was the bathroom. Though he did take a leaf out of the Moon Tree's book of interior design and installed a few sudare screens to separate his bed and work desk from the rest of the room.

He'd been sitting comfortably in nothing but a pair of pants at his small table eating breakfast that morning while finishing several reports when the thing shimmered into existence. "Give me a moment." he said as if the portal was a living thing while it simply hung there waiting.

He finished off his food quickly before rushing to his bedroom and to his desk where lay a small cerulean crystal necklace framed with pale blue and silver colored beads and a pair of white feathers. It was an item Lady Aura forged for him to magically hold his armor and seal a greater portion of his power and his wings into his back so long as he wore it - he'd appear as mortal as he once was. Balmung didn't know what kind of place he was going to and didn't want to draw any unnecessary attention. Slipping the necklace on, Balmung immediately felt its effects; his wings spread out as far as the confines of his room allowed, glowing pale blue and fading away as went. He didn't need to look to know his back was now tattooed with a large black tribal-like interpretation of his wings.

He also grabbed his coin purse, which was filled with uncasted gold, silver, copper coins, and a few precious stones, hopeful that they took that kind of currency, and item bag - both bags were specially made from a rare silvery cloth called Magic Weave (they could hold up to ninety-nine of fifty different object, no matter the size or weight without gaining an ounce heavier than a pound). He had made sure to fill it to capacity with every spell scroll, tarot card, potion, elixir, camping gear, enough rations to last him several months, and everything else he'd possibly need to survive. He pocketed his money bag and tied his item bag to his belt before stepping into a pair of heavy duty hiking boots and lacing them up. He tossed on a rather simple shirt to go with his equally simple trousers, wanting his attire to be as unassuming as possible, he didn't need the wrong sort of attention tipping off his quarry that someone might be after them by wearing anything close to his normal apparel.

Balmung had already written a note to his comrades should anyone notice his disappearance and left it in a place easily found. Only his partners and the higher tier members of the Knights such as Yata, Haseo, and Tsukasa would know anything in depth of his mission Lady Aura had given to him.

Balmung gave his quarters one last look, making sure he had everything he would need. He had no idea how long he'd be gone and hoped it wouldn't be too long before anyone noticed him missing. As he prepared himself for going through the portal, Balmung thought back to when he volunteered himself to this new quest.

((O0O))

FLASHBACK

((O0O))

_They stood in a near total void the color of fresh whitest snow, the only colors were several large island-like patches of land. Some looked like parts of rooms one would find in a mansion while others were scenes of nature. This serene, if odd, little realm, untouched and inaccessible by mortals, was where all the divine aspects of the world took shelter and called home. At the center of it all, one island in particular was of a vivid green that look like a peaceful clearing of dew-touched wild flowers within a forest bathed in perpetual morning light. It was the goddess' "throne", Lady Aura's domain._

_A large canopy bed big enough to fit six with pristine white sheets and cloud fluffy pillows sat in the center and several small, simple, objects that would not look out of place in a child's bedroom floating lazily around. At the moment, the little island was host to nine people; eight Azure Knights - four of which were nightmarish patchwork constructs in the shape of the their originals - kneeling respectfully before their one Goddess of Dawn (Light) who sat daintily on her bed._

_"My loyal knights, I call upon you bearing troubling news." the goddess, Aura, began in a serious and concerned voice._

_"Tell us what's wrong, Aura. We'll do what we can to help." Kite implored rather informally. Out of all her knights, Aura favored him the most._

_Pale arresting blue eyes looked at each warrior before saying, "I have come to find out that from one of the old sealed temples dedicated to Morgana has been broken into and ransack." The knights gasped - at least four of them did, the constructs gave low incomprehensible mutterings - at the news. Anything that had anything to do with the Dark Mother, Morgana, was ill-omened and left everyone there with dangerous thoughts and emotions. "The Akashic Scales, an artifact of great and potentially deadly power, was stolen. It has the power to balance life against death, light against darkness. If used by evil hands, to cast an entire world into the void if the user were so inclined."_

_"How could something like that exist?" Orca asked._

_"It was a tool of balance between Lord Sol and Lord Cernunnos." Aura answered. "When they shaped this world and all that dwell on it, they used the scales to help them. Morgana, when she betrayed the Pantheon, took it and kept it, thus giving her the power needed to create the Cursed Wave. Thankfully, she never found out its true power and could not unlock it."_

_"Why didn't Lord Sol and Lord Cernunnos or any of the other gods try to reclaim it after Morgana's defeat?" Orca asked._

_Aura sighed and answered, "She hid it well. Even after her destruction we could not find it until recently. But unfortunately, someone knew of it and beat us to it"_

_Blackrose gave an unladylike growl, a sound that echoed with her doppelganger's. "Do you know who the little thief is? I'll pound him to dust!"_

_Balmung nodded in agreement. Anyone who threatened the peace and stability of the world deserved to meet his end on one of their blades, in his opinion. "Yes, we will track down this bandit, take back the scales, and bring them to justice." he announced boldly. Even the winged man's broken double groaned in full agreement._

_Aura gave an almost wry smile at her knights. They were honest and good souls, and yet here they were all joining forces like a lynching rally, and the sad part about it was that she really couldn't blame them. They had fought far too many foolish, greedy, or just plane evil powers that nearly brought the world to the brink of destruction too many times in their long lives. They would not act without due cause, punished in accordance to the crime, and were never lenient on the guilty. They extinguished any small flame of conflict they found before it had time to grow into the too large and wild fires of war._

_This time would be no different._

_"I unfortunately do not know specifically who committed the theft," she began again with closed eyes, "they used very strong, strange portal magic to enter and leave the temple before disappearing all together. I had sent some of my Grunties to investigate the occurrence. They reported the residue magic signature left behind was nothing like anything they ever felt before. It was too foreign, too strange to be anything recognizable to them. Even the scent trails left behind was unusual to them. The thief may not be like anyone in the world"_

_"What does that mean?" Kite asked, not understanding. They others were in a similar state of confusion._

_Aura eyes opened and stated with absolute conviction, "Given the evidence found, our thief may have come from a different world." She saw their utter disbelief and shock and decided to elaborate. "This Pantheon is not the only group of deities in the universe. There are others out there who've similarly shaped worlds of their own."_

_The knights believed her explanation. Their Lady was not much for lying, especially to them, without good cause, and even then she wasn't very good at it. "Why can't Lord Sol or Lord Cernunnos go retrieve it?" Blackrose asked._

_Aura shook her head. "Because it would be an invasion. After the Time of Genesis, it was decided that in order to keep the balance of universal power, no Pantheon would enter another's territory, least a war be waged. Such a clash of titans would devastate entire galaxies." she explained "That is why we gods choose champions to represent us and send them on quests for us, in order to avoid such terrible bloodshed." Aura pointed at her knights in emphasis._

_The group stayed quiet for a long moment as the digested the new information about one of the secrets of eternity. They had seen firsthand what kind of destruction the gods were capable of a century ago, and that had been against mortals. They had no desire to see gods fight each other. Orca clenched his fists and said, "… If that's the case, then how are we supposed to find that guy? He's in another world."_

_Aura turned to stare unseeingly at something only she could see. "There is a way. I have foreseen in one week from now several portals will open to receive some of the more docile monsters of our world into the world the thief hails from. One of these portals will open for a human and only stay open for a few minutes. The summoner of this particular portal calls for one that is 'divine and beautiful, wise and powerful'. My power would normally keep you from being called away from me, but I will allow one of you to make the journey. But who will go?"_

_The Azure Knights looked at each other in contemplation as they began discussing their decision. The doppelganger Knights were immediately eliminated from the running for several simple reasons; that they weren't particularly subtle, they didn't really care when someone got in their way as long as the job was done unless Aura specifically ordered, and tended to be far more brutal than strictly necessary, bordered on overkill, in their actions. Their looks also wouldn't allow them to blend in with a crowd very well, if at all. That left it between Kite, Blackrose, Balmung, and Orca. Kite couldn't go, he had too many responsibilities as leader of the Twilight Knights and people would notice his absence quickly. Not to mention Aura would worry excessively if he left. Orca was just as well know among the Knights since he was the Chief of Security, he had a great amount public relations within the two kingdoms of the world than the others, a lot of contacts within each of the major guilds, and he was the prime source of the high morality among the Knights. Blackrose was the leader of female division of the Knights and had just as much influence as Kite. She also refused to leave her brother or Kite's side for more than a day or two. That left Balmung. While the winged man was a noble in the King of Light's royal court and had high standings in the Twilight Knights, he was relatively unattached due to his near constant wanderings of the Lost Grounds and refusal to settle down. They agree on the angelic swordsman after several minutes._

_"I will go, milady." Balmung announced._

_Aura nodded in acceptance. "Then we must prepare for your departure."_

((O0O))

END FLASHBACK

((O0O))

Balmung stepped forward and cautiously pressed a hand into the portal. The portal stayed calm for all of two seconds before it suddenly opened like a yawning mouth and swallowed the surprised man whole. The green portal flashed brightly then collapsed on itself and swirl out of existence, leaving an empty bedroom behind.

Balmung was sent tumbling uncontrollably through a vast and seemingly unending swirling black void for what seemed like hours but was actually just a few seconds before a light pierced the darkness and opened into a new world. He cursed as he fell out more than fifty feet from the ground, but he felt a strange magic grab him and slow what should have been a fatal fall - he had been ready to pull off his crystal and unseal his wings - until he was at least ten feet from the ground before letting go into a plume of smoke.

((O0O))

Balmung laid reclined in his hay pile that was supposed to serve him as a bed, arms cushioning his head, the look on his face was half in disgusted irritation and half in smug triumph. He watched his brat summoner watch him as she was down on her hands and knees in exhaustion. Her face was red from anger and exertion as she panted heavily, in one of her hands was her trusty little wand while the other clutched a spiked dog collar and chain that was bolted to the wall. Earlier, she had tried to get it around his neck and failed. Balmung had deftly evaded her and led her on a merry little chase around the room, ducking and dodging her exploding spells and lunges for his throat as he made her wear herself out.

With mages like her, it didn't take long.

Louise gave a frustrated cry and threw her familiar's collar away. This was not how a familiar was supposed to act! They weren't supposed to ignore their masters, run away, or defy them at every turn either! But this- this… DOG! just wouldn't obey her and know his place beneath her.

"Are you ready to calm down now?" Balmung taunted nonchalantly.

"You are the worst familiar I have ever met!" Louise pointed and shrieked. The snowy haired man merely shrugged.

"By Aura's light…" I muttered, this girl was exhausting. "You know, maybe if you treated me like the man I am instead of some simple minded animal, I'd be more inclined to actually listen to you." the swordsman pointed out.

Louise growled, standing to tower over him, turning her head away petulantly while still glaring at him. "You are nothing more than a disobedient familiar. I suppose a good enough punishment will bring you in line." Balmung raised an amused brow at her, as if telling her to do her worst. "So you'll have NO FOOD FOR THE NEXT THREE DAYS!"

Balmung winced at the achieved volume of her voice. He looked at her and blinked in surprise before his face went blank. Louise took that as his way of surrendering, but in truth he was trying not to laugh at her. The pink haired girl turn slightly and began undressing again for bed. "Now that that's settled, I'm tired. I'll deal with you properly in the morning." she stated as she tossed her clothes at him again, completely disregarding the fact that Balmung was a man and she was a girl undressing before him.

Now Balmung's face went blank for reasons other than hidden humor as he once more turned his head away. "What are you doing?" he hissed.

"I'm preparing for bed." she said as if it were the simplest thing in the world to understand before snapping her fingers. The candle flame instantly snuffed itself out, plunging the room in near complete darkness. She then took off her chemise and tossed it to him, her discarded panties soon followed.

As Louise pulled on her night gown, Balmung commented, "You know, this is the second time you've undressed in front of me. I did not realized the women of this world were so lewd as to bare themselves to men so readily."

Louise glared in indignant outrage at her familiar for his remark. "How you dare call me lewd? And you presume too much to call yourself a man? You are a genderless commoner familiar and nothing more." she spoke with a finality that went ignored as she made herself comfortable in her queen sized bed. "You are to wash my clothes."

"And why would I do that." he was somewhat reeling by her calling him genderless. Whether she acknowledged it or not, he certainly had undeniable proof of his gender.

"You are my familiar. I'm the one who's going to be responsible for you as your master. Cleaning laundry, doing errands and such are all part of your job. Make sure to set my clothes out in the morning." she ordered, rolling over and snuggling deeper into her bed. "Do it pro-properly… and I might… feed you." She was asleep in seconds after that.

"You are all too persistent at treating me like a dog, girl." Balmung sneered as she drifted off. "I may yet have to teach you what happens when you trample on my pride." His words went unheard. With a grunt, he snatch up the girl's clothes and walked out. He was not going to her laundry because she ordered it. It was just convenient that his own clothes were in dire need of washing as well and getting it done together meant a chance for a peaceful morning. Also, this gave him a opportunity to explore the castle grounds unimpeded, unlike earlier. This would be the first and last time he'd do it for the bratty little wench.

((O0O))

Morning light filtered into the room through the window I had just opened. Leaning out the window slightly, letting a light breeze play with my hair as I listened to the sound of singing birds. There wasn't even a cloud in the sky and it wasn't overly windy. It was a beautiful day. Perfect for letting my wings stretch and flying several laps around this castle school. Unfortunately, I was trying to keep a low profile and not advertise myself to any potential enemies as I may encounter as I hunt down the thief I followed into this world. I was a very recognizable figure in my world after all, I didn't need any stories about winged swordsmen flouting around. In other words, I was effectively grounded.

Sighing to myself, I pulled back into the room and threw a look over my shoulder at the lazy lump of a girl still in bed. I had gone to sleep somewhat late last night but still woke with the sun this morning and managed to get in a bit of exercise and training before the servants woke up. With that though in mind, I snatched the girl's covers off her, letting the cool air breeze over her. Louise shivered and reached for sheets that were no longer there before she groggily turned on her back and opened her eyes.

When she looked at me, she didn't seem to recognize me. "Huh…? Hey, who are you?" she asked with a sleepy muddled voice I rolled my eyes at.

I tossed her clothes to her. "Wake up, girl. It's time to get up." I took as seat at one of the only two chairs in the room as she sat up and rubbed the sand from her eyes. While I admit she was adorable asleep and just waking up, that cuteness quickly evaporated when she was fully awake. "You will be late for breakfast if you do not get up."

"Oh, that's right," she said around a yawn, "you're that commoner familiar I summoned yesterday." Louise's sleepy brain hadn't seemed to pick up on my blunt way of addressing her yet. She then picked up her bundle of clothes and looked at them, seeming to notice something missing. "Where are my panties?"

I had to stop myself from grinding my teeth. "It would not have been appropriate for a man to go through your undergarments." I said stoically. The under note in my voice clearly told her she could get those herself because I wasn't going to do it.

"Do you want another day without eating?" she threatened with a hard stare as she stood out of bed and took off he sleeping gown, standing bare before me… again. I turned away… again. Sadly, I was quickly growing used to her doing that. I simply shrugged her threat off. It was not like I would die of starvation. I could go at least three weeks without eating and a week without water. Lady Aura saw to that when she gifted us Azure Knights with immortality. She bristled like a cat again and I snatched the clothes I just gave her out of the air when she threw them at me. "Dress me." she ordered again.

"Dress yourself." I countered snappishly as I laid her close on the table.

She seemed outraged at the very idea. "Nobles do not dress themselves. That is the servant's job." she informed.

I nodded, I already knew of the practice well since I too endured it when I was young. I doubt she's believe me if I told her I had just as much noble blood in my veins as she did. "I will go call a servant then. I'm sure there are a few who will help with something so horrendously difficult task as putting on today's uniform." I taunted dismissingly as I walked to the door and opened it just enough so that I could slip through. I didn't want to expose anyone who happened to be passing by to her nudity. I saw her go for her wand and closed the door just in time to hear an explosion of fairly moderate power hit it with enough force to cause it to rattle. I smirked at the muffled string of rude, but not obscene words that flowed out.

((O0O))

I leaned against the wall casually as Louise exited her room and glared nastily upon sighting me. I raised an eyebrow in amusement at her. She had finished dressing herself just as a maid I called for stepped away from the stairway. "That wasn't very hard, now was it?" I asked politely with a teasing smirk.

"You, you, impudent dog." Louis glared harder in response.

I ignored her name calling. It just meant I had won our little spat. "From what I hear, breakfast is just about ready. I'll escort you down." I then looked at the maid who was staring between us in question. "Miss, would you tidy up Miss Valliere's room please?" I asked, giving her my most charming smiles.

The maid nodded demurely and hurried along, a blush staining her cheeks. Here I notice Louise's glare seemed to change for some reason, but I ignored it as I motioned her ahead of me.

((O0O))

As we entered the dinning hall I was met with many delicious aromas of food. I could see three long tables with more than a hundred chairs each taking up the rather grandiose room. The checkered floors were buffed to a near mirror shine, along the walls were many marble busts of different magi both male and female - likely, they were past headmaster/mistresses-, and a row of candle lit crystal chandeliers hanging from the high vaulted ceiling. Most of the school's students were already seated in front of their preset food but not touching it yet. They sat in accordance to the color robes they wore, which seemed to be the symbols of their year of attendance.

I followed Louis up her year's table until she came to one empty seat in particular, her apparent assigned seat. Being the gentleman I was, I pulled the seat out for her. She quickly sat with all the dignity and grace of her station. Louise then frown and tossed me a pointed sidelong look when whispers began buzzing around the room. I didn't even need to be told that I wasn't invited to the table, especially when I already spotted the single chipped plate with a slice of dried bread and bowl of cold soup on the floor near he feet. I was not amused and gave her a dry look to show it before I bent down to pick up the plate and bowl. "I'll let myself out now to eat with the other familiars, Miss Valliere." I addressed her lightly with all the respect I didn't have for her. She looked at me with wide questioning eyes. She was probably expecting me to embarrass her in front of her peers with my continual defiance. I saw the glimmer of hope in her eyes that maybe I was finally coming to a heel for her. "Please enjoy your meal." the frosty politeness in my eyes and voice, despite the plastered smile I wore, quickly killed that hope as I walked back the way I came. I reached the door just as the before meal prayer began.

((O0O))

As I walked out into the open air of the castle lawns, I saw dozens of servants busily working as they set up many tables and chairs, throwing and straitening white table cloths over them while setting lovely little teacups, plates, and silverware in preparation for something. Over to the side, far from the working servants but near the doorway I was standing in, were the familiars. It was odd to see creatures that would normally in the wild considered each other predators, prey, and rivals so close to one another, docile and relaxed, but not trying to eat or just kill each other. I decided to join them as I said I would.

When I approached my fellow familiars many of their eyes turned to me. Some turned back away in disinterest, some continued to study me, and a few were eyeing the untouched food still in my hands. As I sat just a few feet from them, some of the smaller animal actually shuffled up closer to me, their little noses twitching towards the bread or soup.

I never told anyone this, but I was a real sucker for animals. And they seemed to adore me back.

With a small smile I set the soup down close to them and started crumbling the tough bread for the rest. This small act of kindness turned out to be enough to set off a miniature stampede as many of the familiars all pushed for some real estate on or near my person. Two mice and a chipmunk made a nest in my hair, an owl and a parrot took my shoulders as two puppy dogs nuzzled into my sides. A cat and a rabbit claimed my lap while a green snake coiled loosely around my neck and a white one around my arm. A yellow frog sat on my raised knee and a large red salamander sat at my feet. All the other familiars huddled as close as they could get while the dragon I saw yesterday wrapped itself around all of us and used one of its wings to close us in. From the light of the salamander's tail flame, I could see all the familiars cuddling and settle down close to nap.

Well… This was not exactly how I pictured my morning - I especially didn't think I'd be the center of a dog pile of familiars - but I doubt I'd be allowed to move anytime soon. With that in mind, I let myself relax against the warm belly of the dragon behind me and fell into a light sleep.

((O0O))

When I next awoke it was to the muffled sound of my summoner and the other students calling out the different names of us familiars.

((O0O))

Louise, like all her year mates, had came out side looking for their familiars, only to find all but Tabitha's dragon missing. He didn't answer when she called for him, and it wasn't until the taciturn blue haired girl got her drake to move did everyone finally find their familiars. Coming out of a group nap. With Balmung pinned down at the center.

"So this is where you've been hiding." the youngest Valliere daughter stated, though she looked a little daze at finding him in such of a predicament.

Balmung stretched languidly when he was finally freed. "More like being unwittingly coerced into becoming a life-size plush bear." he corrected as he moved toward her. "Care to explain the occasion." the white haired knight motioned his head towards the slowly filling tables.

Louise crossed her arms and made for a free table. "The entire second year was give the day off. So we can spend the day communicating with our familiars. To understand the bond between us." she then tossed him an wry look as she sat daintily. "Not that it'll do me much good with a defiant dog like- ahh!" The pink haired noble girl squeaked in surprise when long dexterous fingers suddenly grasped her chin in a gentle yet firm hold and her head was made to tilt up. Louise glared and opened her mouth to yell at him but found herself silenced when looking up into the sharp violet eyes of her familiar. His eyes were hard and unyielding and his fingers had tightened, exerting just enough pressure to make her stay quiet and listen.

"I believe," Balmung started coolly, "we shall make use this opportunity for real communication between us. Maybe it will help us reach a better understanding of each other faster and get to know each other." his tone broke for no arguments. When he let go, Louise rubbed her chin as he continued, "Stay here for a moment. I'm going to see if I can get some tea and cakes for us to enjoy as we talk." the swordsman walked away, determined to find some refreshments.

When he was gone, Louise was still staring after him. In that moment the young noble girl was beginning to see he familiar in a more daunting light. The man truly didn't seem to fear what kind of retribution the Valliere girl might have for him. It almost like he was merely humoring her. The thought stung and made her angry. That anger found some outlet when Kirche and her red salamander came strolling purposely towards Louise.

((O0O))

Finding a servant wasn't very hard, in fact, it was as easy as bumping into someone. Literally. That had been the way I met the little maid named Siesta. A flouting purple eyeball had wandered in my line of path so suddenly that I instinctively jumped back, reaching for a sword that wasn't there, right into the dark haired girl. The eyeball blinked before floating away unnoticed.

"Ah, forgive me, I had not meant to bump you." I told her, bending down and picked up the mess of a cake slice she'd been holding before she could. "The eyeball startled me."

She had just smiled up at me. "Its okay, I'm fine." she assured, grimacing at the now grass covered pastry. "Oh, where are my manners? My name is Siesta."

"And I am known as Balmung."

"Bal… mung?" she stretched the syllables of my name, wrapping her tongue around it. "What a strange name." I didn't think so. In fact, I thought my name sounded quite gallant.

From there, we seemed to hit it off fairly well, especially when she saw the rune etched into my skin. She was quite the pleasant, excitable thing - though not as excitable as Mistral and her daughter - and looked at me as though I had done her a great service. Apparently it was unheard of for a peasant to become an noble's familiar, and thus, it was something to be looked at with great reverence. I beg to differ. I doubt even the most lowly of common folk would appreciate being treated like mongrel dogs off the street. She and I asked a few questions about each other and she also given me a basic rundown of this world when I expressed my exasperation with the so-called 'nobles' of this world. I mean seriously, having magic or not shouldn't be the deciding factor of who was a 'noble' and who wasn't. It only made politics that much more treacherous with the added personal power plays. Siesta defended and praised the nobles with all fervor of a programmed machine as she gushed about how much of an honor it was working for them. I could only grin and nod.

It wasn't long before she began picking up momentum that several loud voices called out to Siesta, demanding to be served more tea or cakes. With a squeaky yelp, blushing prettily, the dark haired maid excused herself and rushed off back to work. I scratched the back of my head with some consternation as I watched her go. I hadn't even gotten the chance to ask if she could deliver something to mine and Louise's table. I didn't know where to go to get my hands on any pastries and tea. I guess I'll just have to look around myself.

I was just turning around to pursue the desired drink and sweets when I heard the most obnoxiously exasperating voice speaking most boastfully of his familiar. Ten feet to my left were a pair of blonds, one was that fop from last night, Guiche, with a giant mole laying across his lap while the other was a very prim, curly-haired girl. I remembered her from the summoning ritual. She was holding and stroking the tiny frog that had perched on my knee earlier with a finger.

The girl, while responsive to Guiche's flamboyant charm, was not so too keen to look at his mole as favorably even though she preened when the young man complimented her frog, calling it 'cute'.

I was about to ignore them and continue about my business when Guiche called out, "My, my, Louise the Zero's provincial familiar. Trying to run away from your master again? I wouldn't be surprised." he laughed dandily at his own humor, though I did not find it that funny. His companion, however, kept sneaking glances at me, staring mostly at my face, her cheeks faintly colored. She seem to be struggling internally with herself. I noticed a lot of the female nobles had been doing that whenever they set eyes on me as I pass by.

Louise the Zero, heh? It was a curious thing to call my bratty pink summoner and couldn't help but wonder what she did to be called such a title as 'Zero'.

"The stress of having a zero for master. It must be hard. But then, a zero for a zero and all that."

I snorted tersely. "Do not patronize me, boy. Regardless of what you know of Louise, you know nothing of me." I then looked the curly-haired up and down for a moment, then back at Guiche. I felt my lips pull up into a rather predatory smirk. It was childish of me, I know, but the spoiled brat had it coming. "Hmm, I see you've broken off from that girl from last night. The one with the brown cloak, a first year girl." I said, watching as Guiche blanched. "I suppose her soufflé wasn't enough to garner your love? She must be heartbroken."

"What's he talking about, Guiche?" the girl across from the frivolous noble asked, her eyes narrowing as suspicion began taking root.

Guiche barely managed to avoid starting at the sound of her voice. He then waved his rose dramatically and said, "He speaks nonsense, my dear Montmorency. He is but a mere commoner summoned by the Zero trying to befoul my integrity." he covered for himself rather smoothly. "I can not-" But I wasn't going to let him go that easily.

"-Tell lies in front of your eyes?" I finished for him and he looked at me like a frightened dear. I then moved in for the kill. "I had a feeling those words sounded scripted. They sound exactly like what you told that girl, Katie, I believe her name was, last night in the dormitory corridors."

He paled further as the girl, Montmorency, began radiating a black aura. Guiche stood up and pointed his rose at me shakily, desperate anger rolling off him in waves. "Y-y-you lowly peasant! How dare you speak such outlandish lies? I am a noble, superior to you in every way!" he announced loudly, seeming to not notice the crowd he was drawing.

I lifted a brow mockingly. Then I saw something in my proverbial vision that had me want to smirk deviously. "Oh, really? Then let us see which of us speaks truth and which of us speaks lies." I challenged and pointed to my right. "Katie is coming her way over." I stated just before the first year student reached us. I watched the boy freeze up as Katie made a beeline for him, smiling happily with eyes wide and shinning with infatuation, Montmorency was now watching Guiche with narrow hawkish eyes.

"Lord Guiche! I've been looking for you!" The brunette seemed to ignore her crush's stammering rambles as she lifted a small white basket. "I made one of my soufflés for us to enjoy together for the tea party. Just like we promised!" she proclaimed proudly while blushing.

She hadn't realized just yet how damning her words were. By now I could see Montmorency was grinding her teeth as her hands fisted in hot rage "So that's how it is." the blond girl ground out.

Katie had seemed to finally notice Montmorency standing there glaring poisonous daggers and looked between the two blonds. "Lord Guiche, what's going on?"

I smirked. "And so, the lying two-timing playboy has been exposed." I announced the scandal for the crowd as both girls, upon heading me, began laying into Guiche. The little fop was trying to do everything in his power to pacify both girls and escape the impending harm about to be dealt, from complimenting them to trying to get them to calm down with his charm. His effort were in vain. Then Guiche said the one thing only a fool man caught in his position would ever utter:

"Please, I can explain!"

"YOU LIER!" both girls screamed. The crowd winced a two sharp slaps reverberated and Guiche was knocked on his ass, a pair of red handprints decorating his face. The crowd howled with laughter and taunts as Montmorency and Katie walked off together.

Guiche sighed piteously for himself, mourning his tattered pride, before he saw me standing not far away and picked himself up, growling in anger. I was half ignoring the fool's words on my lack of etiquettes towards nobles and how I had somehow been at fault for damaged both girls' reputations and making them cry, even though not a tear had been shed from them. Though I did retort, "You were the one caught two-timing them." and received agreeing nods and support from the crowd.

"So be it then, I Guiche de Gramont, hereby challenge you, familiar of Louise Francoise Lu Blanc de La Valliere, to a duel!"

"I decline." I answered without missing a beat, crossing my arms. My casual refusal threw him for a moment. "I have no need to duel you. More so, what would I look like quarreling with a schoolboy."

Guiche took offence but smirked nastily at me. "Ah, I see now. You are a coward." I stiffened at the accusation. "The Gramont family is rather well know for our prowess in battle. A peasant like yourself would stand no chance against me, so you make excuses and run away."

My hand fisted. If there was one thing I hated being called most, it was a coward. The very word simply grated on my nerves. Maybe I had grown tired of trying to act humble while my pride was being beaten at, or maybe my patience had finally snapped. But now I had a desire to put at least one of these spoilt children in their place and found myself agreeing.

"Good, I will be waiting at the vestry courtyard." with a billowy swish of his cloak, the blond turned and left for the designated dueling grounds.

As the crowd dispersed, some likely going to spread the word while most followed after Guiche, I suddenly felt a violent tug on my wrist. Looking down, I saw Louise's furious brown eyes stare back up at me. I hadn't realized she's arrived on the scene until now.

"You idiot! What was that about?" she raged in question.

"I believe I just accepted an issued duel. Why? Is there something wrong?"

Louise looked ready to explode. "Of course there is, dummy! Guiche comes from the Gramont family, his father is a General in Her Majesty's royal military. He's likely been trained and he wont go easy on you!" she raged. "Come on!" she growled pulling my arm as she marched thunderously towards where Guiche went. "If we apologize fast enough, he might call off this ridiculous duel."

At that, I dug my heels in, forcing her to an abrupt stop. "Now that just won't do." I said, jerking my arm out of her grasp. "I'll not apologize for the wrong doings of others trying to push blame on me. I had turned him down once, but now he has forced my hand."

"Wha- you fool! Don't you get it? You're a peasant, he's a noble, peasants can't win against nobles! You'll be lucky if all you'll get is a few bruises!"

I gave the girl an amused grin. "Save your concerns. When the duel is over, we will talk." I told her before heading off to the vestry. I heard Louise give a frustrated cry as she cursed my 'stupid male ego' and heavy stomping as she followed me.

((O0O))

"You're braver than I thought," Guiche announced as the crowd of students parted for Balmung and Louise. "You didn't run away, I commend your courage."

In response, Balmung rolled his eyes, unimpressed at the posturing as the crowd chortled and murmured. The white haired knight listened with vague detachment as several bets were placed, mostly on Guiche and only two for him because he was the 'underdog'. Towards the back of the crowd stood the most mismatched and unlikely of friends, Kirche and Tabitha. Both watched Balmung for different reasons; Kirche because, despite his status as a peasant, Balmung was a very handsome man with a majestic quality to him that reminded her of a knight. Tabitha watched because he just seemed more interesting than mostly everyone in the academy. So much so that she had yet to looked down to continue reading her book. Siesta was also standing in the crowd. When she heard Balmung had stood up to a noble, she was both amazed and horrified. He seemed like a very brave, kind hearted man and she was worried for his well being. All she could do was pray the noble wouldn't hurt him too badly.

"The dog the barks loudest often have the weakest bites." Guiche's glamorous face contorted into a look of rage. Balmung then ask in a bored tone, "Shall we begin?"

"WAIT!" Louise jumped between the two. "Stop this right now, Guiche! You know it's forbidden for nobles to duel."

Guiche gave an ill-tempered smirk. "That rule only applies when going against other nobles, not peasants." he countered, eager to show this offensive peasant just who was the real dog.

Just as Louis opened her mouth to say more, Balmung beat her to it. "Stand aside, Louise. I promise this will not take too long." The pink haired girl looked at her human familiar and saw a man who was both bored with the whole affair and confident in himself and his abilities.

Nothing about this duel sat right with the young lady noble; if felt more like watching a bully picking on a little kid. Balmung was her responsibility and under her protection for the founder's sake! As much as the man infuriated her to no end, Louise did not want to see her familiar a battered, bloody mess on the ground. But looking at him standing there, so entirely confident and treating the fight as if he were merely humoring a child, the same way she knew he treated her, had a small voice deep within her mind whispering assuredness to her. Slowly, Louise hesitantly began backing away from the line of battle. The action had Balmung nod approvingly at her.

"And now, the duel commences!" Guiche announced and waved his rose. A single petal fell and touched the ground. There was a circle of light and up rose a tall female armored figure carrying a spear. It almost reminds Balmung of a much smaller, feminine version of the Armored Super Shoguns that used to patrol the fields of his home world, hunting for wayward travelers to slaughter. "I am called Guiche the Brass, as such, this brass golem, Valkyrie, will be your opponent."

As soon as those words left Guiche's mouth, the Valkyrie charged, moving faster than something so heavy had a right to, with its fist thrown into a punch. The hit landed into Balmung's diaphragm. The man winced, choking back his pain behind a grunt. Most of the gathered student tittered in exasperation, several younger students gasped, not used to seeing such a show of violence, the rest were impartial. The hit had been hard enough the Knight knew he might be bruised there latter, but not hard enough to really knock the breath out of him. With a small cough, Balmung straitened back up.

"Do you see now, peasant? You can not win." Guiche gloated. "Give up and apologize and I'll let you go."

Balmung scoffed. "You caught me off guard with one lucky hit and you think you've won? What arrogant foolishness." Guiche frowned and sent his golem forward again. The tide of the fight seemed to instantly shift when the earthly construct attacked. The Azure Knight of The Sky turned away from the next attack, dodging cleanly. The Valkyrie continued to press its attack for Guiche, kicking and punching, occasionally taking swings with its spear in an attempt to bludgeon or cut, as Balmung demonstrated just how nimble on his feet he was by avoiding all its strikes. "You know, somehow I knew it would turn out this way." Balmung remarked as he dodged another blow. "You challenge me to a duel, yet you send a golem to fight for you."

Guiche merely chuckled. "But of course. I'm a mage, there is no need to dirty my hands like some plebian brute." he rebuked, the very idea of it was a foreign concept to him. "Hmm, this is becoming rather dull, how about I make it more interesting." another wave and another detached petal and suddenly a rather elegant, if slightly plain, bejeweled sword was standing erect in the ground in front of Balmung.

"And what's this supposed to be?" Balmung looked at the offered blade critically with a growing frown. While its appearance was pleasing to the eye, in practical use, however, he noted it had several faults. It wouldn't last long in a real sword battle.

Guiche smirk and explained, "You are obviously at a disadvantage, and being the sporting gentleman I am, I've decided to give you a fighting chance."

Balmung gave the young noble such a blank look that had Louise beginning to feel ill eased. For Balmung, it was a sever insult, like a slap in the face before being spat on, for his opponent to offer him a weapon to fight back with. Even if he hadn't said it, Guiche was calling him weak, and for a proud swordsman like Balmung, such a thing could not be overlooked. Balmung's head lowered so that his fringe shadowed his eyes, hiding his look of cold wrath, and he yanked the blade out of the dirt. In the moment his hand made contact with the sword the rune etched in his flesh glowed brilliantly, though he didn't seem to notice. Louise, and several other onlookers, however, did notice and would ask about it later.

The blond boy chuckled with closed eyes. "So you still have the will to fi-?" Guiche's speech was deftly cut off when he felt strong breeze pass him by followed by the sound of a heavy crash of metal meeting earth behind him. Turning to look, Guiche saw the impossible sight of his construct sprawled out on the ground like a broken doll. What was most frightening about the scene was that the sword he'd fabricated for Louise's familiar was speared through its chest up to the hilt, pinning the dissolving Valkyrie to the ground. The sight took everyone by surprise as they stared in hushed silence before people began roaring in awed surprise.

"You, you spoilt little brat, have insulted and underestimated me, you have a lot of nerve…" Balmung said in a low, chilled tone. "I shall teach you the consequences of your folly."

Guiche gulped nervously then growled, half in new found fear and half in defiant anger. "I don't know how you did that," he forcefully swiped his rose wand twice, causing six petals to fall away, "But it will not happen again!" Six more Valkyries rose up and charged.

For Louise, it was like time had slowed as she watched helplessly as the blades of Guiche's Valkyries converge on her familiar.

Balmung stood undaunted, ignoring Louise shouting at him to move, with his face set as stone. He reached into his item poach and pulled out a two-toned yellow scroll. As he raised the scroll - nobody seemed to notice the dark cloud forming overhead - and called out firmly, "_ION STRIKE!_" The scroll flashed and disintegrated in his hand, a yellow-white rune taking its place, while above there was a rumble of a thunder clap before a lightning bolt shot down from the heavens. In an instant, the area between the two duelists went up in a small explosion, blowing back Guiche and some of the closer audience members. It took several minutes, but when the smoke and dusk cleared, Balmung stood tall and firm in his place, the six Valkyries had been vaporized.

The surrounding silence was palpable.

"I would be within my right to end your life since this is a duel, but I do not wish to stain my hands with the blood of an ignorant child." Uncompromising violet eyes stared down into frightened blue. "Yield boy, so I may spare you and take my leave of your fool self." he said snappishly. Guiche could tell, with that look in the older man's eyes, he said that in all seriousness, he really would kill him if he didn't concede to his defeat.

"I-I, I yield…"

With an accepting nod, Balmung turned to leave. He took three steps before he paused and tossed over his shoulder, "You said you come from a military family, yes? Ask your father, the General, what etiquette of the battlefield is. He'll tell you how insulting and how much of a fool's mistake it was to offer your opponent a weapon in the midst of battle." Balmung then continued walking, the crowd parting for him and Louise following hot on his heels. A curious, yet slightly downtrodden Siesta was not far behind either.

Up above, watching the trio leave the courtyard was one Ms. Longueville, the secretary of Headmaster Osmond. She had seen from beginning to end the 'duel' take place. Like the headmaster and Professor Colbert, she had noticed something special about that Valliere girl's familiar, and the rune she spy in the book Colbert had made her even more curious about him.

((O0O))

"Okay, what in the Founder's name was that!" she asked as she all but threw herself into her chair, arms crossed in an almost petulant stance. Ever since we had come back to our table, Louise had been pacing restlessly, muttering and throwing almost accusatory glances.

"What was what?" I asked innocently as Siesta - the maid had followed us back - poured set out a tea set and filled a cup for Louise before doing the same for me.

Louise growled. "Don't act cute! You can do magic, strange magic, but magic all the same!" she rudely pointed at me. "Why didn't you tell me you were a noble?" She was now very worried about me being a noble familiar rather than a peasant familiar, especially given my treatment. As a peasant, not many would care about my disappearance and would eventually forget. That or celebrate my 'moving up in society.' However, as a noble, not only would come from a prestigious family, but my disappearance might incite a war, whether it be a battle of politics or swords, between two countries.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Siesta turned away, pretending not to listen to our conversation, but her stiff back gave her away. She seemed both eager to hear this and almost disappointed, though I'm not sure why. I then sipped my tea - a sweet, flowery concoction I never tasted before but found myself liking - before I shot back, "Why did you label me a peasant at first look?" When she didn't answer, unable to meet my eyes and an embarrassed flush streaking across her face, I continued, "I'm not a noble in the same sense as you. If you tried seeking out my family name, you wont find it, since I'm not a native of this or any of the surrounding lands." I informed. "Where I come from, having magic is not synopsis with nobility. It simply means you have the potential be good at wand waving. Almost everyone where I come from have some level of magical ability in them, even the commoners."

Louise blinked in surprise while Siesta seemed to straighten up at the confession. The pinkette tilted her head in question. "Do you come from across the sea then. No one's ever explored beyond Albion, so maybe…" she muttered the last part to herself, her chin between her pointer and thumb.

I shook my head negative. "When I said I was not a native, I meant I do not come from this world, Louise."

The look she gave me in that moment told me not only did she not believe me, but as if I were insane and should be locked away. Even Siesta turned to give me a strange look, but she quickly remembered herself and turned back to her business. I couldn't blame them, it's not everyday someone tells you they come from a different world. "…You expect me to believe that nonsense?" she scoffed.

"I don't expect anything. But the facts remains, I am what I am and I do not belong here. Eventually I will, without a doubt, return home to my Lady's side. When the time comes and I all I need to do is done, milady will send for me." I shrugged nonchalantly before taking another sip of my drink. The tea was good, but I was beginning to wish I had something stronger, like a tankard of ale or mead. I knew this little chat was only going to get harder now.

Louise reared at that. "What do you mean you'll 'return home?' What do you need to do? And who is this 'Lady' you're talking about?" she looked at me with confused, almost worried eyes. She also seemed upset that I would serve someone above her, having finally caught on that I never once referred to her as my 'master'.

"My Lady is my true mistress, the one being I have long since sworn my life and sword to. When I have done my duty here, she will likely break the familiar bond between us and I will be free to return from whence I came." I saw Louise's widen with an uncomprehending look on her face, probably wondering who could possibly have the power to break a familiar bond. I closed my eyes with a sigh, placing my cup down. Siesta shifted in a way that said she was surprised. "Please, take a seat, Siesta." I said. She started at my sudden address to her and looked at me uncertainly. I motioned her to the chair between me and Louise. "If you're going to be here for the entire conversation, at least sit. You'll want to soon enough." I explained. Siesta looked to Louise for confirmation, who nodded and shrugged, before seating herself. I leaned back before starting, "What I'm about to tell you must not go beyond us. There are people out there that do not know of my presence and I wish to keep myself hidden for as long as possible." when they stayed quiet, but nodding hesitantly, I continued, "I hail from a world with no formal name but is divided into two realms; the Kingdom of Light under the reign of the White King Apeiron, and the Land of Shadows under the Dark Queen Helba's rule. I am a Lord and head of the Ancient and Noble House of Engel-Ritter. I am a holy knight blessed by the Goddess of Dawn, Lady Aura. By all rights, Louise, I would not be here had milady goddess not wanted me here, but I volunteered to be sent because I am on a mission of dire importance."

The two women gave me long looks, as if to judge how serious my words were or if I were speaking fanciful tall-tales. Louise was the one who spoke first, "Say I believed you, could you prove what you say? Can you prove you come from… a different world?"

I nodded and tapped my necklace. "This crystal seals a great deal of my holy power. Should I ever take it off, you'll see me as I'm meant to be." I then picked up my tea again and finished it off. "I suppose I should reintroduce myself. I am Balmung of the Azure Sky, Descendant of Fianna. I am one of eight immortal protectors and gatekeepers of the Realm of Dawn, I am a captain in the holy order of the Twilight Knight. I have wandered and mapped the consecrated Lost Grounds, I am a shared confident between the King of Light and the Dark Queen, with the help of one of my fellow Azure Knights help, I slew the foulest and most beautiful of beasts, the spectrum dragon known only as One Sin." I then smirked at my summoner. "I truly am exactly what you asked for when you summoned me yesterday."

I couldn't help but chuckle when the pair went bug-eyed at my credentials. "Will you show us?" Siesta asked in a tiny voice. "What you're really like, I mean."

I smile mischievously and answered, "I shall, with due cause. But until then, I leave it for your imagination to guess."

Louise looked annoyed at me for that and huffed. "So what's this mission of yours?"

I sobered quickly at the question. "I am on a retrieval mission. An artifact of great power and importance to the gods of my world was stolen from a sealed temple. I am to find it and bring it back. I _will_ slay the thief and _anyone _who tries to bar my path. It's just that important." I said pointedly. In the wrong hands, the Akashic Scales was too dangerous an artifact to allow mortal hands to hold. Even if would not want to, I must, I would sooner go through Louise than allow this or any world to fall prey to some selfish god-wannabe. She may have summoned me as her familiar, but she did not control me.

Siesta was twiddling her finders nervously. "I would like to help, if you'll let me, any way I can." In her world, working for nobles was an honor, but helping to save the world was a once in a lifetime chance. Even to me my mission sounded almost like an adventure from a storybook, and she may have wanted to help the main character and be part of his party. But then again, that's my assumption, I don't know any of her personal feelings about the whole subject were.

"That would be appreciated." I accepted, though I was hesitant to let a maid, of all things, aid me. She was, after all, no warrior or magician, but as a servant she heard a great deal of information without notice she could pass on. As my old friend Wiseman Yata would say 'knowledge is an indispensable key to achieving one's goals.' Who was I to pass up a potentially good source of knowledge?

"If what you're saying is true, and I still want to see proof, then I will help too… if it doesn't interfere with my own duties. " Louise added.

I nodded. "Then we are in agreement. May the light of Aura illuminate our path and protect us from darkness."

* * *

**_And there it is, the second chapter! Complete!_**

**_I hope I did a good job and this chapter answered as many questions as possible. Like I said, I had to twist a few things to make it as 'real' as possible - hopefully I didn't butcher anything too badly for those real diehard .hack/ fans. Please send your reviews on what you think. If nobody likes it as much as I hope, I'd likely take it down and rewrite it. If you do like it, I'll keep going. Well then, thanks for reading! TTFN! _**


	3. Magic Malady

**Hello again everyone out there! It's good to be back, finally! Sorry about the slow update. Writer's Block can be killer, not to mention I had some problems with my internet connection. But all's good again! Here me third chap. Please enjoy and send reviews!**

* * *

Balmung sat in Louise's classroom, next to her at two seating desk as he listened to the teacher, a delightful plump woman in a purple witch's robe and hat by the name or Mrs. Chevreuse, give her lessons on elements and how to make them more powerful or change them to get different effects through alchemic combination. He had been with Louise now for all of a week and had finally grown bored. He'd already explored much of the castle and grounds, finding and cataloging classrooms, libraries, halls, corridors, and secrete passageways and had nothing better to do. He had begun mourning the fact that he'd been all but chained to Louise - he didn't know anything about this world, its people, geography, or any of the potential dangers just outside the castle walls - when Louise decided to drag him with her to class this morning after breakfast. She had been annoyed with everyone the entire day so far, especially him, and he had an inkling as to why.

Balmung had been the talk of the school all week since the 'duel' he had with Guiche and almost every student, teacher, and servant he'd passed had been giving him second looks. The teachers were curious but courteous about it, the students were confused and conspicuously pointed rather rudely at him as if he were some sideshow circus attraction, and many of the servants seemed gloomy and oddly disappointed with him. But out of the looks he'd garnered, Balmung was especially uncomfortable with the smoldering looks that redhead girl, Kirche, had been giving him as of late every time the two came into close proximity of each other… like she was doing now.

The white haired knight kept facing forward, hoping to discourage the girl. It did not take a genius to figure out he was being hit on; she would send him sultry winks, made sure to accent her cleavage more often, and moved her hips more sensually when she walked by him to draw his eye - never mind that nobody could really see anything with her cape covering her. Balmung had been around too long to not know when a woman with less than pure intentions wanted his attention. Mind you, she wasn't the only one he caught doing it, but she seemed the bold type and he didn't doubt for a second she'd been looking to find a way to corner him when he was alone. He just hoped no fan clubs would form like they did back home because, undercover or no, he'd unseal his wings and fly away in a heartbeat. Fan girls, and the occasional fan boys, were worse than monsters sometimes. Balmung mentally sighed and continued to listen to the lesson. He was one part interested and two parts worried. He was interested to find out how this land called Halkeginia utilized magical elements, and the effects gained by using them in different ways. However, he was more worried because they were teaching curious kids, walking natural disasters in their own right, how to use alchemy and encouraging them to probe and experiment with such a dangerously perilous branch of magic. It would only take a single, most miniscule mistake and someone would be paying a visit to the nearest undertaker.

He also listened as the class went over levels of mages and spells, which it dictated by how many elements a mage could combine; Dot level mages were the most basic and could only use one element, Line mages used two, Triangles were three, and four for Square. Only royals had what it took to go higher, but that required a coherent combination of their magical prowess.

"I believe most, if not all student in this class are Dot level mages and can only use one element…" she said, looking around the class to see if there were any surprise corrections. She received one when Kirche stood.

"Mrs. Chevreuse, there is one of us who can't use any element." Kirche hinted with a tease and chuckle as her eyes slid over to her right and one row down. "She _does _have a success rate of zero after all."

Balmung blinked in surprise, raising an eyebrow, when he saw all the students turn their eyes in his general direction, or rather, to Louise.

"Oh, come now, students," Mrs. Chevreuse said, a sweat drop barely noticeable, "leave Ms. Valliere alone so we can begin practicing the spells on today's lesson plan." The older woman pulled out a brass goblet of water. "We'll be learning how to transmute water into another liquid of our own choice. So, Ms. Valliere, would you to give it a try?" Mrs. Chevreuse may have been a relatively new teacher at the academy, but despite last week's disastrous class with the youngest of the Valliere family, the woman was not yet ready to give up on Louise. There was just no conceivable way the girl could be completely inept with magic, she just needed to find the right element. Hopefully before someone decided to brand the child a lost cause and a danger while holding a wand.

In an instant the entire class was up in arms against the suggestion, rather vocally shouting and sneering out how dangerous it was for Louise to be allowed to perform any kind of magic. As the teacher quickly recovered the class, for Balmung, he had finally realized why everyone in the academy called his summoner 'Louise the Zero.' "I see now."

Louise, listening to all the slurs and warnings against her, sat in her chair growing more and more agitated as her temper sky rocketed. "I'll do it!" she shouted, standing so swiftly and suddenly that her chair hit the wall behind her. She marched with a high chin down the rows, ignoring her classmates' pleas - and Tabitha's silent evacuation of the room -, to the teacher's podium.

"Please recite the spell we learn earlier." the plump teacher instructed. With a nod, Louise took a determined breath, raised her wand and began chanting.

Balmung's instincts began screaming DANGER!

Several students uselessly ducked under their desks.

((O0O))

The Tristain Academy of Magic, once a calm sanctuary for magical study in its early afternoon setting, suddenly shook violently as an explosion blew out several windows on the west side of the tower-castle.

Headmaster Osmond, knowing that explosion just now was once again caused by Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Valliere, sighed in both lecherous content and exasperation. The old man, while having been knocked down by said explosion, laid virtually on top of Ms. Longueville, his face buried between the buxom mounds of his secretary breasts.

"Oh, my, not again. It seems I'll have to talk to Mrs. Chevreuse about Louise, again." old Osmond said with a sigh, nuzzling the lovely, and sadly, clothed womanly attributes while his hand traveled south towards the green haired woman's backside. "Ms. Longueville, won't you be a dear and fetch Mrs. Chevreuse for me?"

"Yes, sir, I shall see to summoning Mrs. Chevreuse up later… but first …Headmaster Osmond," Longueville said while righting her lopsided glasses, her strained calm voice showing the first sign of her barely restrained and growing ire. When the old man blinked up at her with feigned innocent attention, the secretary, with a twitching eye and an evil looming aura of darkness, loosed upon him a righteous hellfire. The long suffered Longueville's raised hand reared back, "KEEP YOUR FILTHY HANDS TO YOURSELF! YOU DIRTY OLD PERVERT!" and swung, hard.

SMACK!

The headmaster yelped in pain as his almost ritualistic beating commenced.

((O0O))

"So…" I started as the pair of us walked to the dorms not long after the class day ended prematurely, "Louise the Zero, huh? I had been wondering why they call you that. It's because you've had a zero success rate with your magic and spell weaving." I lightly picked at the frayed and singed edges of my shirt in dismay. If things kept up this way, I may have to invest in buying more clothes. My spool of extra thread was already almost half gone with all the times I had to use it mending my cloths Louise's failed spells ruined over the week.

Louise grunted and growled in reply, "What of it?" she snapped at me in a deadly voice.

I shrugged and folded my hands behind my back. "It is nothing, but I wonder how someone can have no success at magic when they clearly have as large amounts of it as you do." Louise tossed me an odd look over her shoulder, as if telling me she didn't believe me.

"Don't joke around!" Louise snipped irritably, shame coloring her voice.

I rolled my eyes. Louise truly didn't know how strong her magic was, did she? "I'm not joking." I took hold of her shoulder, bringing her to an abrupt halt and turned her to face me. "Do you know the difference between summoning an animal and a human? Why summoning a human is rarely done and so much harder verses the common summoning of a beast?" She hesitantly shook her head. "The deference is power and who can overpower who. It is easier to summon an animal because animals are usually weaker minded and would not resist much, unlike a human. Most beasts are simple minded creatures and do not often think beyond their basic needs of survival and mating, they tend to bend easily to another's stronger will. Humans, and some more intelligent and magically incline creatures like dragons, are more complicated and thus more dangerous to beckon forth. When we oppose something we will run or fight back, usually, thus taking more energy to call upon." I explained carefully. "Add to that, you called _me_, a holy knight of great power favored by a powerful goddess. Had I not a reason to come here, I would have fought the summoning and you would have suffered an extreme case of magical exhaustion, pain by proxy, and possibly fall in a coma as a result. You would have surely died due to magical backlash had Lady Aura used her power to counter your summoning when you were trying to get me here. Understand?"

Louise nodded. "But, I've studied and tried all four elements and nothing works! I'm just not compatible with any of them…" she trailed off forlornly as her eyes drifted to the floor. "I've tried everything."

I raised a brow at her. "Highly doubtful you've tried _all_ the elements." when she looked up again at me in confusion and more than a bit of annoyance, I decided to elaborate, "Your alchemy teacher only mentioned spells based on four basic elements - water, fire, earth, and wind. If you remember, the magic I used against Guiche's Valkyries was lightning based." I watched as Louise's eyes lit up at the memory.

The pink haired girl grabbed fists full of my shirt. "That's right! You used magic, and it was an element I've never heard of anyone ever using before! Teach me how to do that too!" she all but ordered me.

"Why?" Louise seemed stunned I would ask that. "What reason would you need to learn from me?"

The tiny girl turned her head away, shrinking on herself slightly. She then answered hesitantly, "Because… because I-I want to learn proper magic, even if it's a different kind of magic. …I want to rid myself of that ignoble nickname and finally honor my family and our lineage! I don't want to be a 'Zero' anymore." she spoke the last sentence through gritted teeth as her hands clenched, tears prickled at the edge of her eyes.

"I do not know if I should…" I was uncertain just how the magic of my world would take to Louise and was hesitant to experiment. Especially if the results were less than desirable. I didn't want to be responsible for any probable, disastrous explosion.

"Then how about a deal? If you agree to teach me, tomorrow morning I will take you out to the nearest town and purchase a sword for you!" I blinked at her proposal in surprise. I didn't actually need another sword, the blade I usually fight with was seal in the crystal necklace with my armor. She must be desperate to learn my version of her craft. "You're a sword fighter, but you can't be a swordsman without a sword."

I covered her fists with my own hands and disentangled her from my clothes. "I could probably try, but I am no Shadow Warlock, Harvest Cleric, or even a Macabre Dancer." Louise smiled widely, though she seemed a bit perplexed at the mage classes I mentioned. "And most of the spells in my arsenal are just pre-made scroll magic or are meant to coincide with my swordplay." I tapped my chin thoughtfully. There would be a lot to cover before I actually taught her a spell of any kind. Louise would have to learn the written and spoken forms of my language for seals and runes, study the uses and combinations of the Wave Symbols for conjuring elements and power amplification, and I don't know if there were any benign elemental spirits she could form pacts with in this world. "There's a chance teaching you anything won't amount to anything, we are from two different worlds after all. You and the magic I use may be discordant."

Louise grew more animated and more determined. "I don't care, I have to try something!"

I sighed and gave her a long look. Her resolve seemed both rock solid and frail, like she acknowledged the factual possibility of a low success rate but was still willing to try. I nodded after a while. "Fine then. It is getting close to curfew and tomorrow is the weekend, I believe you call it 'Day of Void', I shall try tutoring you in the afternoon." I pointed to the darkening sky outside of a nearby window. "I'll have to find a free classroom or someplace private to begin your studies, and you may need to bring writing utensils and some blank notebooks. I have a limited repertoire of scroll magic and I wish to conserve them for when I need them. Do not expect me to demonstrate them." I informed as we continued trekking up to the dorms. Louise was all but bouncing on the balls of her feet. "We will also go through the school library to do some research."

Louise froze and looked at me in question. "Why?"

I crossed my arms and gave her a deadpan look as I answered, "You, Louise, can not possibly think you're the only mage in this world who've had trouble casting spells like you do? Logically and statistically speaking, within every large group of similar people there is at least one odd man out. Your… condition, may have happened before to someone else. If so, I wish to study the phenomenon and find a reason for it. Also, there are more elements and sub-elements than most people care to realize. You may be aligned with one of them." I remembered Mrs. Chevreuse briefly touch upon a legendary element called the 'void' during her lesson and was curious about that. I never heard of the 'void' before and it made me think of the darkness element. From the way it was described it also sounded a bit like the element of quintessence, or light.

Louise groaned at the extra work I was setting out for her as we continued for her dorm. I smirked in amusement behind her back as she bemoaned her foreseeable workload. It almost reminded of my time with my once by-the-book retainer and assistant, the young Wavemaster, Reiki. I used to love driving that overly serious little man up the wall when I shirked my duties, dumped my paperwork onto him to relax elsewhere, and came up with the most inane ways to rile him up. The blond master of magic both respected and resented me for the longest time before we parted ways. Louise was a lot like Reiki in some ways. I wonder how much of those same tricks I could use on Louise before she blew up at me? Probably not much. It would certainly be entertaining to see though… for me that is.

((O0O))

The next morning, Balmung found himself standing just outside the castle's stables with Louise as a stable boy led a large four legged beast with a saddle on its back by the reigns to them. The knight wasn't sure what the creature was -it was taller than him and had a lean yet strong body, walked gracefully on hooves, had a thin coat of well groomed brown fur with a flowing lighter mane and tail, and a pair of wide soulful dark eye set within a long face - but he could tell for all its alien beauty, it was a beast of burden. All the winged man could do was stare up at the animal as the stable worker helped Louise up into the saddle.

Louise looked down at Balmung as she took the reigns when she noticed him staring critically at her horse. "Well? Don't just stand there! Get on already." she ordered. It would take three hours to get to town and another three to get back. She was eager to start learning his magic, whether she could do it or not, as soon as possible.

Balmung slowly followed Louise's example and cautiously pulled himself up onto the horse's saddle behind his summoner. Balmung leaned over slightly to look at the beast he sat astride on, making sure it didn't make any sudden moves that would buck him and his summoner off. When the horse remained docile, simply standing their nickering and snuffling, the white haired righted himself and loosely wrapped an arm around the little Valliere girl.

"Have you ever ridden a horse before?" Louise asked, trying to keep her voice neutral as a blush over took her face at the position she was in with her familiar. She kept her face forward, not wanting him to see her, as she nudged their horse's flanks to make go. The horse gave a whine and started forward in an easy trot and slowly gained speed.

"We do not have these… horse creatures, in my world." Balmung admitted simply, thoughtfully. "But we used to ride Grunties before they reassumed their true forms. Now most ride steam bikes. Riding these horses seem similar enough to riding Grunties, but my skills might have diminished a bit over the years. It has been a long time for me."

"Grunties? What are steam bikes?" Question marks were practically flouting around Louise's head.

"Yes, Grunties were large beasts that people in my world used to ride when traveling. They came in a wide variety and did many things. Even talk." He told her as their horse cantered out of the academy gates and into the road. Balmung spent a good hour or so telling Louise about the once cursed breed of peace loving pig-like creatures and what little he knew of steam technology. While he didn't outright detest the steam technology like the Beast Tribes, they had their uses after all, he didn't like how the mortal humans stripped Chim Chims of their gods given Chim Spheres to power their machines. He simply preferred the pure magic of the olden age over a new technology bourn of unsavory methods.

((O0O))

Unbeknownst to the ridding pair, as they set out, Kirche was watching them leave. She had just finished applying her lipstick, determined to seduce Louise's oh so handsome, knightly familiar, when she heard their horse whine and clip-clop its way out of school grounds. He'd been completely ignoring her womanly charms for days now - a first for her as no man had ever disregarded her flirtations with such ease before - and it only served to stroke the flames of her feminine desire for him even more.

It hadn't taken much to find out his name, Balmung - even the sound of his name sent pleasant shivers through her body. He was just so cool and he put so many of the boys in the academy to shame. That man with hair as white as freshly fallen snow and eyes like dark amethyst stones shinning in the sunlight was just too handsome to be some patchy peasant, too mysterious to not be alluring, too charming to not impress, too manly to be a weakling, and too cultured to be a simple lowly commoner. And the way he used magic was just so exotic; she'd never heard of anyone who could call a lighting spell, an element only a rare few pentagon or octagon magicians could use, and he did it with a scroll, without a wand or even an incantation. All of these qualities made him so much more desirable and it got her so hot just thinking about him. His very presence was just screaming nobility no matter what rags he wore. She found it hard to believe that everyone was either trying to ignore him because he was Louise's familiar or was blind to what was because of thos commoner clothes he walked around in. It was sad in a way how prudish these Tristanians were. No real red-blood Germanian woman in her right mind would ever overlook such a fine male specimen like that for any length of time.

Balmung was just the kind of man Kirche could really see herself truly falling in love with.

Kirche was also conscious to the fact that most of his time was spent with that flat chest little Zero. Sure, a familiar should always be near their master, but Balmung was not a normal familiar, he wasn't even a beast like her wonderful salamander, Flame. She just needed to get him alone for a while and away from Louise the Zero. Kirche also wanted to know where they were going. She didn't want to think Louise might just be taking him on a date, the tiniest Valliere was too much of a virginal maiden for that, and if she was… well, even the most abstinent of men couldn't resisted Kirche the Ardent for too long. She'd slip her future darling's heart right from under Louise's little nose.

With these thoughts in mind, Kirche began plotting ways to lure (re: capture) Balmung to her. She then ran off to Tabitha's room, she needed a consultant who was good with tactical ambushes. She had a man to snare!

((O0O))

As we walked through the main street of a town some three hours away from the academy, I could almost feel at home. Almost. It reminded of the times I used to walk through Mac Anu, back before the Steam Era took over and almost completely renovated the old city that was named 'Son of A Goddess.' But there was a distinct difference that staved off any real feeling of nostalgia I could see easily; the buildings were too small and lacked Wave Symbols painted on their walls, there were no canals with gondolas, no bridge or bell tower, there were no magical protection barriers around the town's perimeter or a Chaos Gate, the streets were so narrow and not very crowded, and the townspeople themselves were simple farmers, travelers, merchants and the like. None even looked like they were capable of even wielding anything more complicated than a steak knife or pitch fork. Yes, this town was bright and cheerily colorful and nothing like my old hometown.

Louise marched several paces ahead of me, searching for a weapons shop she claimed was around here. It wasn't long before we turned down a slightly darker and shoddy alleyway, passing by several shops including a blacksmith's and a potion maker's shop with Louise muttering the whole way, when we finally came to a seedy looking weapons shop that was under cared for and less than appealing in any way. I frowned ever so slightly as I followed my little summoner through the door. I wasn't very sure if this was the kind of place I wanted to do any kind of business in.

A bell chimed merrily as we walked in. Looking around, the inside hardly looked much better than the outside. Cleaner, somewhat yes, but not better. Weapons of different makes, lengths, and designs were everywhere and displayed in an unappealing fashion; hanging or leaning haphazardly on the walls were pole arms, spears, lances, halberds, and some axes so large that only the old Heavy Axmen and current Lord Partizans of my world would be crazy enough to wield. There were also some maces, feet of chain weapons, coils of different whips, and a few bows and crossbows decorating the back wall while barrels and chests of assorted swords, daggers, and knives took up the floor.

The merchant who would sell these wares of battle was a rat, I could tell just by looking at the man. He certainly looked the part of untrustworthy vermin very well. He dressed in grubby clothes, reeked of tobacco and the stench of unwashed musk, had a narrow face, his yellowed buck teeth had a smoking pipe clenched between them, a whiskery mustache twitched every so often under his large snout-like red nose, and a pair of spectacles that were magnifying his beady eyes that gleamed with greed as he passed over me without interest and watched Louise in a calculating way. She was very obviously a noble, and a naïve one at that, and he was smirking slyly, practically salivating, at how much money he might be able to make off her.

He gave a too wide smile that he probably thought made him look humble as he bowed at the waist. "Welcome to my shop, my young Lady, and gentleman." he addressed me in afterthought. "How may I be of service to you today?" The merchant rubbed is hands together eagerly.

Louise stepped up to the counter confidently and stated while pointing at me, "I'm looking for a sword for my protector." I almost sighed. Louise was too broad with that demand. The merchant could very easily swindle her into purchasing something defective or ill appropriate. Good thing I'm an accomplished Blademaster, I have too much of a analytical mind to be cheated when it comes to swords. There would be no way I would be made to walk out of this shop with a useless piece of scrap metal or anything of the like tied to my side.

The ratty businessman nodded keenly. "Ah, yes, I see. Well, I have many swords, both used and newly forged, plain yet hardy, short and long, broad and thin, a few meant for channeling magic like a wand, and even a some truly rare beauties you won't find anywhere else." he listed enticingly. "So, do you have anything in particular in mind?"

By then, Louise had already pulled a sword, a rapier, from a nearby barrel and was looking at it with a novice's eyes. She looked at me in a speculating way as I continued to look around. "He uses swords that are a little bigger and thicker than this." she told the salesman, her ignorance on weapons shinning through completely. In all truth, Louise didn't know what kind of swords I prefer and was only going by what she'd seen me do with the blade Guiche cafted for me to use against his Valkyrie. "Don't you have anything that would fit him?"

"Are you sure? That size may be best for him." he asked, barely glancing at me. I scoffed inwardly. I knew for a fact his question was a ploy and that sword in Louise's hands was just a little too short and far too thin to fit my sword style. I'd break the thing with only a few good heavy swings. When Louise yelled at his to get what she wanted, or something close, I took that as my cue to start looking at the swords more closely. More than a few of the weapons in this shop were nothing but offensive to my eyes and the rest were not but starter weapons meant for a novice. The merchant jumped back and scurried to the back of the shop and I saw the sly look he had as the curtains shielding the backroom fell back into place over the door.

The little Valliere noble had just proven herself inept at this sort of wheeling an dealing, easy prey for a slimy merchant like the weapons dealer.

When said dealer came back not five minutes later, apologizing for keeping us waiting, he presented me with a rather beautiful sword. It was golden from the tip of the blade to pummel with three rubies embedded decorating the guard and one in the hilt. I could also see small intricate writing, runes, engraved into the guard. All together it was a work of art.

"This is the best in my shop." the weapon seller announced proudly with a smirk and preceded to give us a bit of history and facts on the sword, like how it was made by a Germanian lord who was also an alchemist, how it could easily cut iron and not rust over due to enchantments, and how it could conduct magic for spell casting.

Louise seemed very attracted to the weapon, if only because it looks pretty. "How much for it?"

"For you, little lady, I'm willing to part with it for 3,000 New Gold." he held up three fingers as he named the price. While I can still claim ignorance on basic knowledge of this world, that sounded like a pretty piece of gold, even to me. Louise was beside herself over the price tag.

"What? You could buy a good sized mansion with a forest backyard or several dozen acres of farmland with cattle for that much!"

The merchant shrugged nonchalantly as he folded his hand behind his back. "Swords of such finery come with equal costs, milady. As a noblewoman, you would know that already." he pointed out as he smoothed one of his whiskers nonchalantly between two fingers. "I'm actually selling it at the bargain price. Normally, its about the same price as a small castle."

"But I only have 100 New Gold on me…" she admitted dejectedly.

It was about then I decided to cut into the conversation. "It doesn't matter anyway. I wouldn't buy it." the pair started and looked at me as I continued to study the sword.

"Why not? It's a good sword, my best! _The_ best one for miles!" the shop owner asked indignantly.

I thought differently and told him as such. "This sword is pretty, but too impractical for use in live combat. While gold is a good conductor for magic, it's useless as a blade of any kind, period. It wouldn't hold an edge for very long like a steel or iron sword can. Enchanting this sword to resist rusting was stupid because gold is naturally the most rust resistant metal. This sword may be wide, perfect for dealing heavy, devastating blows, but its too thin, that leaves it having a great chance of it breaking against a skilled swordsman." I then took several experimental swings and frowned. "It doesn't have very good balance either. The tip is too large for me; this sword is meant for wide or downward swings and would mess with my backswing. For someone like me, I'd wear myself out swinging this in extended battle." I presented the salesman with the hilt of the sword. "The sword is beautiful to look at and might be good as a wand, but that is all. It would best be sold as decoration than for actual fighting. The man who made this, is he still around?"

The merchant shook his head as he took back the sword, "No, it is said he died in a fight against bandits many years ago while traveling to Romania. I acquired this sword last year."

I nodded with a slight frown. "While I dislike speaking ill of the dead, he was an incompetent fool if he was using this in a fight." I shook my head at the very thought. "I will need something else. Preferably something within our budget." I personally might be able to afford the sword, what with all the gold I brought from home, but this was what Louise said she'd buy for me. A gift in exchange for teaching her.

As the merchant took the sword back and left, a dazed look of disappointment on his face, Louise was seething. "That sleazy merchant! Had you not have a keen eye and good sense for swords, he would've conned me into buying something worthless!"

"I know. You practically broadcasted you have no talent with swords and left yourself wide open to be ripped off by that swindler." My blunt input was not appreciated. Louise opened her mouth to complain when a sudden hooting laughter filled the room.

"You really showed up that crook!" the disembodied complimented with laughter. "I've seen that guy swindle so many people out of their coins, I can tell whose the easy schmuck and who actually knows what they're doing. He didn't know what he was messing with when you came in, buddy!" By then I managed to zero in on where the voice was coming from, a lone barrel of swords in the corner near the window. I went over to look and saw a lot of old, beaten up weaponry, some were covered in layers of rust and dust while others held chips and cracks.

"Um, Hello there…?" I asked, feeling unsure and somewhat foolish.

"Yo! Nice to meet you." the voice said as I started digging through the less than useless blades until I came upon the one that spoke. "Say, mind doing a sword a favor and getting me out of this dump? I'm in need of a skilled partner and you seemed like a pretty strong and knowledgeable fellow. So how about it?" the sword asked as I pulled it out.

"I've never encountered a talking blade before, let a lone a sentient one… You're a bit… on the rusty side." That was an understatement. The blade of the sword was covered completely with rust, the simple brass guard - the part where it spoke from - was heavily tarnished with age, and the leather on the hilt was non-existent as it had long since decayed off. I used my thumb to wipe some of the crumbling rust from the blade and gave a tiny wince when I felt it be cut open. I looked at the clean, shallow slice in my finger with interest as a small bead of blood gathered at the tiny wound before rubbing it away. "But you still have your edge."

I got the impression that if it could, the sword would be nodding smugly. "I've been asleep and unused for a long time. So yeah, I'm a bit rusty, but nothing a bit of cleaning and some quality polish wouldn't cure."

I smirk broadly. I had a feeling this sword was more than it appeared to be. A lot more. "Well then, we will see what you can do when I put you through your paces. You will see the battle field again at my side." The sword cheered as I smiled over to Louise, who was gaping at me before sighing with reluctant resign. "I believe I have found my sword."

((O0O))

"Its junk."

"He's a good blade."

"It's a rusty stick of iron."

"I'll have you know I'm made of enchanted steel!"

"I can clean him easily."

"Its weird!"

"Oi, stupid woman! I don't want to hear that from _you_, Ms. I-can't-cast-a-decent-spell-without-blowing-it-up!"

"Please, stop calling him an 'it'… and she's not stupid."

"Shut up, you over grown twig! I can't believe I wasted good gold on you!"

"Dumb looking women like you wouldn't know a good thing like me even after seeing me!"

"Just you wait! I'm gonna melt you down!"

"Hah! Shows how much you know, dumb girl! Enchanted steel doesn't melt!"

"…-sighing groan-…"

That was generally how the conversation between the trio began and continued to play out almost the entire ride back to the academy. Balmung sighed to himself, more or less being ignored by the bickering pair, before sliding off the horse, trying not to wince because of his sore and long out of use riding legs, and helped Louise down. It had, after all, been several decades since he rode anything like a horse for extended hours like that. He adjusted the sheathed Derflinger, as his new sentient sword and partner had introduced himself as, to hang correctly off his hip as the stable boy came to take the horse away.

Having enough of juvenile fighting, Balmung placed a hand over Louise's lips with one hand and deftly pushed Derflinger back into his scabbard, and sequentially covering his 'mouth', with the other. "That is enough out of both of you. We are back in public and it would not do to be seen arguing like heedless children." he motioned several nearby students who were enjoying their day off but stopped to watch Louise and Balmung's talking sword verbally abuse one another.

Louise blinked, then blushed, realizing she had been making a spectacle of herself. She straightened her clothes and looked away. "R-right! Let's just hurry inside now. I want to begin immediately." The pink haired girl began walking away.

Balmung nodded. "Then let us be- ah?" the man was cut off mid-sentence when a large gust of wind nearly blew his away before something large, a sizeable pair of claws, grasped hold around him from behind and picked him up.

Louise turned around to see what was assaulting them just in time to see a familiar blue dragon take off, Tabitha's familiar named Sylphid, with a struggling Balmung in its clutches. She watched it fly off to the other side of the castle before she realized the beast had just pilfered her familiar and took off after it, temper sparking with rage and concern.

((O0O))

Now, normally when a person was approached or captured and carried off by a beast of any kind of considerable size, their first instinctive reaction would be one's fight or flight response, if they didn't freeze up in fear that is. Common sense would tell a person to run away from anything bigger - or in some cases, smaller- , stronger and decidedly more lethal than themselves, while sheer stubbornness and force of will told a person to bravely - or stupidly, depending on the person and situation - stand their ground and fight back. I, however, was given neither of the two choices; I was being held firmly in a way that pinned my arms to my sides, making it impossible to draw Derflinger. There was also the fact that not only was I more than several dozen feet off the ground, but my kidnapper and captor, as it turns out, had been none other than that quiet blue haired girl's, Tabitha, large familiar, Sylphid The Dragon. That means I couldn't hurt the beast and, kidnapping aside, it didn't seemed to want to make a meal of me or anything, not with those playful looks it kept shooting me even as we landed in a courtyard on the opposite side of the castle.

When Sylphid finally released me, I backed up several paces in case the dragon decided it wanted to get grabby and fly off with me again, and found we had landed in a rather secluded area of the castle. The drake gave a cute, if screechy, kwee sound before nuzzling his face and neck affectionately like some overgrown house pet. I gave it an awkward scratch/pat around the ridges of its large green eyes - I knew from experience where dragons were very sensitive - , earning an appreciative rolling purr-like growl, before I suddenly found myself being tackled and bowled over from my right flank.

I could almost swear there was some kind of conspiracy going on. Seriously, a person doesn't get accosted by multiple familiars in one day without someone pulling the strings.

Flame, Kirche's red salamander, was more or less dragging me off into the castle by the back of my shirt collar. Sylphid actually raised its claws and waved 'bye-bye' at me in almost childish way while sitting back on its hunches. I got the feeling the overgrown flying lizard was laughing at me too.

With most of my powers sealed, my struggles weren't helping me loose myself from the fiery reptile's locked jaws. I wasn't going to draw my new sword on an innocent familiar without clear evidence that Flame was up to no good. It wasn't long before I was dragged into a semi-dark room and finally released. Multiple flickering candles basked the room in a warm glow as the scent of rose water lightly perfumed the air. The room I found myself in was a dorm room, specifically, a girl's room, if the display of many feminine objects decorating it meant anything… that or a very effeminate boy's room. I remember the few visits I had into Endrance's quarters back at the Twilight Keep, the once blue haired Wavemaster turned Blade Brandier's space of residence had not been too dissimilar in appearance.

"…Good afternoon, darling." a sultry and slightly breathy voice greeted. When I turned to look, Kirche, wearing not more than a deep purple and black silk and lace nightie and matching panties, was there laying posed in bed of roses and staring at me with darkened, lustful eyes. Her attire complimented her figure; clinging loosely to all her curves while showing off a generous amount of smooth bronze skin of her arms, long legs, belly, and cleavage. The well endowed girl-woman practically exuded this fiery aura of come hither sensuality that was hard to resist. Any lesser man would jump to fall into her arms and bed for a night of sin.

Fortunately I was not a lesser man. While I could appreciate the view she offered like any man with warm red blood in his veins, I wasn't the type of man to give in to the cardinal desires of a hormonal adolescent girl barely more than halfway through her teenage years. Had she been a few years older, maybe. My morals were just too high and honorable… and besides, I was too desensitized to be properly moved enough by the sight she made. It was nothing new to me, not with how so many female warriors back home dress. Though, being a gentleman like with Louise, I averted my eyes. Desensitized or not, there were just certain lines of propriety you don't cross.

"I've been wanting to meet with you in private all week," She slowly stood from where she lay and sashayed her way to me and kneeled down between my legs in a way that both presented her breasts more prominently and granted me a perfect view down at them. "Do you know why they call me 'The Ardent'? It's because like a wild fire, I get so passionate and hot about the things I desire." she explained in a seductively low voice as she pressed herself flushed against me, her face slowly inching toward mine. "The things I love, and you, Balmung, I can't help but fall in love with."

I could feel the heat of her breath tease my lips as she was a bare inch away, her head tilted and dark, half-lidded eyes slid shut as she prepared to kiss me… and that's where I put a stop to things. My hands quickly found her shoulders and gently pushed her away. As I stood, pulling her up with me, I put at least three feet between us. "I am sorry, I can not accept your feelings as I do not feel that way about you." I informed her as politely and diplomatically as I could. Kirche was not the type of woman I'd take company with beyond platonic relations, if that at all. I was not about to become this girl's one night stand boy-toy.

In the week I had been living in this academy, I had heard a number of rumors about Kirche; half of the whispered rumors had been nothing but compliments, the other half, however, were none too flattering. From what I could tell, this girl was popular with all the boys and both grudgingly envied and loathed by most of the girls, most fervidly by Louise, as she was their common competition. She flitted and fluttered between boys like a bee between flowers. It was almost like Guiche in a way, but the difference was where he hid his two-timing ways, Kirche was open about her priorities concerning multiple men. She had them all organized and scheduled like penned in business meetings in a day planner. The boys knew she had created a reverse harem out of some of them and didn't care very much, if at all.

Kirche had a spark of bullheaded determination enter her eyes before glazing over in a half tender shine as she bridged the gap between us again. "If this is about Valliere, you could do so much better." she stated. "Please stay with me. I want to be with you." she told me demurely, her arms coming up to wrap around my neck.

I intercepted her before she could lay on anymore of the romantics. "This is not about Louise. It is simply too improper for a man of my age to have clandestine affairs with one as young as you." I spoke bluntly. "Where I come from, such relationships are highly frowned upon." I explained to her and stepped back. I told her no lie about what I said. I do not now how it is here in this world, but back home, relationships between girls/boys younger than eighteen and older men/women had become less and less morally correct as the years passed until finally such affairs had been outlawed. "I appreciate your feelings towards me, but I can not accept them." I took another step back, this time towards the door. Kirche opened her mouth to continue to try and pursued me, but she was immediately cut of when her door was suddenly slammed open with enough force to nearly splinter the wood.

Standing at the room's threshold, heaving heavy pants and covered with a light sheen of sweat, was a very disheveled and irate looking Louise. The shorter girl clenched her wand tightly in her white knuckled grip and was red in the face with unbridled rage, exertion, and what looked like the beginnings of a sparking jealousy when she took in the scene of the room. Why and what reason she could be getting jealous over, I hadn't the slightest clue, but I could see the situation was about to deteriorate. Rapidly. And possibly come to blows. I especially didn't like the way Louise's wand was beginning to let off a small light of crackling magic in a closed area, not that she noticed what it was doing.

"…I should have known you were the one behind this, Zerbst." the tiny girl ground out from behind gritted teeth.

Kirche looked around me curiously to she who burst through her door so rudely. At the sight of Louise the redhead sighed unenthusiastically. "Oh, it looks like little Valliere came." she noted dryly before dismissing the smaller noble, "Come back later, Balmung and I are in the middle of something."

A vein on the pink haired girl's forehead bulged and throbbed. "I will leave, but I'm taking my familiar with me! He doesn't need to be tainted by loose, sinful women such as yourself. Now take your hands off my familiar, you hussy!"

Kirche scoffed. "You're just jealous, Valliere." she then hugged my arm close to her chest. "Now why don't you be a good little Zero and buzz off. My darling and I still have unfinished business."

I felt my face warm with small blush against my will at feeling the tanned girl's soft mounds encased my captured limb but managed not to show it too much. Luckily, Louise's presence gave me the perfect opportunity to vacate the room. I gave a polite cough, earning both girls' attention. "Actually," I began, gently extracting my arm from Kirche's grasp, "we've already finished our discussion and I was about to see myself out."

"Whaa? But darling, we haven't even gotten to the fun part yet." Kirche whined coyly. "Can't you stay?" she asked in a low tone full of heat, snuggling into my side while one finger traced odd shapes into my chest.

This girl was far too persistent. I gave the young redhead a patient smile and stepped away. "I am sorry, but no. There is work to be done and errands that I can not avoid." I looked down to Louise. "Let us leave. We have much to do and daylight is burning." I quickly made a beeline for the door, though I did spy Louise shooting Kirche a triumphant smirk as we left.

Had I stayed long enough to hear it, Kirche's determined declaration of the continued hunt for my heart might have explained the sudden sense of dread settling in my gut and that shot of the chills was racing up my spine.

((O0O))

With what time left of the daylight we had, we toiled away well into the night slowly working through the school library. At first I spent most, if not all, our time in the library dedicating it to teaching Louise and supplementing her growing knowledge on language and the magicks of my world. At the moment, we were going over Wave Symbols, how they are used and their meanings. I had opened one of my magic scrolls to show her how they looked and explained how they worked.

"So scroll magic is written runic incantations and Wave Symbols on parchment?" Louise asked for clarification. "I thought the symbols were all that was needed."

I shook my head. "No, the incantations are used to gather and contain magic from the caster while focusing that energy for a specific use. The Wave Symbols, while a prominent part of the spell, only adds the desired element and augment the strength of the spell. The spoken name of the spell as well as the will of the caster is what releases that magic." I said while pointing things out, feeling distinctively like my old magic instructor my parents sent to tutor me back when I was young. "Spells that spoken rather than put in scrolls still need Wave Symbols but not as many, maybe two or three of one kind at most. They are usually tattooed to a person." I laid the scroll out before her. "I believe this world's use of alchemic arrays might serve the same purpose as my world's Wave Symbols."

Louise's brows furrowed. "Do you have any? Wave Symbols, I mean?"

I blinked at the question, half expecting her to ask. To answer her, I pushed up one of my short sleeves and showed her my shoulder. There, in white and aquatic blue ink, were a pair of water waves flanking the sky crest on slightly raised skin. "I have a set on both my shoulders," then I nudged up my headband, "and one on my forehead." I had a small yellow diamond of thunder secreted under the purple band. While I may have the title 'of the Azure Sky' my magic was naturally affiliated with water more so than wind. The thunder symbol was something I had added just before the conclusion of the Twilight Incident; the same incident that led to the war of gods brought on by self-centered mortals that feared and hated our very creators but wanted back from them a gift they did not appreciate and was no longer theirs to have. I realized I had no proper defense for the element after Kite had led myself and Blackrose up against Cubia and its troublesome Gomora not long after we finished off . It had been the versions that cast spells that had given me the most problems. I had been far too vulnerable against the thunder spells they kept throwing at me and was nearly killed for that shortsighted mistake. At least I had managed to rectify that oversight before the battle against Corbenik and that she-devil of a goddess, Morgana.

Louise, as expected from such a studious and diligent student that she was, got up and moved up closer to me for a better look. "Would I need to get a Wave Symbol if I could use your kind of magic?" she asked as she lightly traced over the exposed glyphs on my shoulder with her fingers, eyes intently studying their details.

I tilted my head in consideration. "Maybe, if you're capable of using my kind of magic, or you could use this world's equivalent instead, but I personally doubt you would need them." I let my sleeve down and continued to explain, "Tattooed Wave Symbols are only meant to increases one's control of their natural affinities and empower your weaker spells." I then pointed at myself, "Take me for example. Water is my strongest element with wind as a close second, so naturally, thunder is my weakest. I am so-so with the wood and earth elements, barely passable with darkness spells, and I have no talent at all for fire magic unless it's from a scroll."

After that, it had been a near none stop flow of questions and answers between us; I showed and explained a good deal of what little I learned of my magic, explained to her how there were more elements she could try and what they were, and the different methods to go about using magic. I may be barely passable at mage craft, but even I knew Louise wasn't ready to begin experimenting on the practical side of things with foreign magic when she asked if I thought she would be ready to start practicing soon. It was only her first day of study and in my world, budding apprentices of magic didn't start casting spells until they at least had several week's worth of knowledge on the fundamental basics and theories. No master in their right mind would deem an apprentice fit to even try level one magicks during their initial study days, let alone brew their first healing potion - there had been one too many cases of accidental poisoning. Aura forbid, unless they showed great aptitude, they would only receive their first grimoire or magic staff after a year's apprenticeship.

In but a few hours, Louise had managed to work her way though the entire alphabet and enough words to begin to understand the basics of my written language. The spoken version was a bit troubling for her, however. She just wasn't used to loosening or rolling her tongue enough to wrap around certain words, and her accent was too heavy to even understand some words half the time. But that was expected, she was new to the language after all.

We worked until after the sun sank well below the horizon and stayed in the library until it was closed to students. Before leaving I had gotten Louise to check out several books for referencing purposes on the void and this Founder person so we could read together later tonight in her dorm room.

The moment we made it back up to the dormitories, I almost immediately sat to look through some of the barrowed books. I realized, upon opening a book, that I hit a snag. A large, troublesome one at that. While I was able to comprehend the spoken words of others and vice versa, I could not understand Tristain's written words. I also eventually realized, to my surprise, that I was still speaking my native tongue. This rather glaring detail was made even more noticeable as we tried comparing the alphabets of my world and this one I tried speaking my language, only for it to come out sounding no different to my ears than how I was already talking. Louise, however, remarked how odd I sounded repeating the same letters in my confusion while she heard the difference between the two languages.

It left me even more confused than before. The only thing I could think of being responsible for that was magic. Derflinger, surprisingly enough, was the one to explain how the magic in my familiar brand came with several special features. Apparently he had known and was wielded by several others over the centuries who had very similar brands. I was fairly curious about that little fact, that there were other human familiars before me. But that aside, one of said features, as Derflinger explained, was that the brand acted as a universal translation spell. Not only that, but the rune also granted me an instinctive and profound knowledge of anything made with the intent and purpose of being used as a weapon. This included knowledge on a weapon's current state of being and how to operate it upon contact. …Hmm, now that I think back about it, back at that weapon's shop earlier, whenever my hand had brushed or picked up a weapon I somehow immediately knew if it was any of those weapons would be of any use to me or not and exactly for how long. I knew I had a keen eye for swords, but nothing for that much detail.

It was a invaluable and handy trick to be sure since it effectively escalated me up to the level of a weapons master.

We circumvented the language problem by me having Louise read the books aloud to me. The results of our scouring so far was not as fruitful as I would have liked; there was very little written bout the void element and what was written spoke only of it in context behind the Founder of magic, the first recorded mage, and how he used it to end several savage wars and bring prosperous peace to the land. It was an insightful yet useless bit of knowledge that we didn't really care to read more on. Louise mentioned the possibly asking Tabitha, the master of the blue dragon Sylphid, if she had any books on our topic of research - the silent girl was an avid bookworm and most of her room was filled with books on all subjects. We worked until just before curfew researching that elusive element called the void and in that time I had come to realize just how studious and driven Louise was to learn all things magic. Good thing too, we still have a long way to go.

((O0O))

Balmung stood a week later within Louise's room at her desk. He crossed arms as he watched over Louise's shoulder as she drew out her second of two experimental magic scrolls. She wrote out lines of incantations with fast, easy strokes of her calligraphy pen and drew alchemic arrays with slow, intricate details. One was drawn in almost exact likeness to the scrolls Balmung had shown her earlier before, while the other one she was currently working on, was similar, but instead worked with runes and alchemic arrays of her world. Both her carefully made scrolls were what Balmung called 'Level One' fire scrolls, or more specifically, Fireball.

Carefully writing the last of her incantation's rune, Louise sat back from her hunched position, wiping her lightly sweating brow, and took a moment to analyze her finished work critically with a sharp eyes. "I'm done." she finally announced after finding no perceivable errors, placing her pen away to the side.

"Good, now it's time we test them. Would you like to do the honors, or should I?" the snow haired knight asked as the ink on the newly finished scroll started to dry.

Louise shook her head. "We'll both try it." She gave Balmung the scroll she copied from one of his originals. "If this works, it'll revolutionize the way my world's uses of magic." Louise stated as she gently rolled up the second scroll and sealed it

"Alright," Balmung shrugged and looked at the scroll that was supposed to contain a simple Fireball spell apprehensively. "Let's go out to the courtyard, less of a chance of something important accidentally getting blasted and destroyed." he muttered the last part. Louise huffed in annoyance.

The hike to the courtyard was short and uneventful. Hardly anyone except the servants were up, what with it being at least an hour after sunrise and a time before any of the students or staff would rise from their beds for the day. They did, however, run into Siesta as the young maid was outside taking down and folding the linins to bring in. She couldn't stay long to speak due to her chores that needed to be done, but she had promised to visit later on to inform Balmung of any bits of interesting gossip she'd managed to overhear.

Looking around, Balmung felt he'd found a good place to test Louise's scrolls; it was a section of the castle grounds that had good cover thanks to a group of trees, was hard to see into from any of the nearby windows above, and had a small pond nearby with a gazebo. "I suppose I'll be going first then." The Azure Knight announced as he stepped away from his summoner. The white haired man spied a rather moderate sized bolder several yards away and choose it as his target. He raised the scroll, hoping and praying to Aura that this wouldn't blow up in his face - he rather liked his face where and how is was, thank you - while Louise watched with a focused look of eager determination. "FIREBALL!"

The scroll glowed and dissolved as a red rune flashed into existence. The air around Balmung suddenly grew hot before a ball of fire shot out of nowhere and smashed into his target, leaving only a large black scorch mark in its wake. Balmung blinked in mild surprise.

"So partner," Derflinger began from his place hanging off the knight's hip, "how was it, the girl's scroll? Was it up to standards?"

"It was pretty well done actually. Not as strong," the holy swordsman answered truthfully, he turned to look at a shocked Louise and smirked, "but well done indeed. Maybe now I would not have to worry so much about running out of scroll spells." Balmung then motioned his summoner forward. "Now we must test the other scroll."

Louise nodded in a half daze. She had not been truly expecting her copied scroll to work at all, especially work so well. It gave her some hope that her other scroll would work similarly. "Okay, its my turn." Big brown eyes stared down at the scroll clutched in her hands. 'Please let this work…' Louise prayed hard as her familiar stepped back. The Valliere girl copied the movements of the immortal knight and called, "FIREBALL!"

The scroll in Louise's raised hand glowed a deep fiery crimson, slowly growing brighter. The pink haired girl began to smile in long awaited triumph. She was actually casting a spell, correctly! Balmung, however, was beginning to frown as his amethyst eyes narrowed in suspicion; not only was the release of the magic taking too long, but the color was off. His eye widened in alarm when a heavy wave of magic crashed over him, the scroll started hissing and smoking and pale tendrils of light snapped around the scroll.

"Louise, throw the scroll!" Balmung shouted as he ran for her. Louise looked back at him over her shoulder in confusion, not noticing the imminent danger she was in. Balmung snatched the scroll from her hand and tossed it as far away as he could before pushing them both to the ground and wrapping as much of his body around her as possible.

KaBOOOM!

Fire expanded and rose in a short man-sized pillar. The concussive force of the explosion was enough to nearly blow them away, and loud enough to suddenly rouse most of the academy's slumbering residents.

Balmung pushed himself up to sit on his knees, shaking off clumps of dirt that landed on his back. Looking up, the knight was met with the sight of a small crater where he had thrown the detonated scroll. Smoke coiled into long black lengths up and now red hot rocks smoldered along the rim of the new hole in the ground. The blast had been both powerful and hot enough that at the center of the crater was a tiny pool of molten rock.

"Well, that was… an interesting development." Balmung commented. The winged swordsman looked down at his summoner in concern. The girl herself lay in a wide eyed quivering heap half under him as she too took in the results of her experimental scroll.

Louise stared at the destruction she caused. It was another failure, albeit, an entirely destructive one that could have seriously hurt her, if not ended her life had her familiar not saved her in time. She was so stunned by her first near death experience that she was almost completely unresponsive when Balmung pulled her to her feet.

"The scroll had mixed results of success and failure."

At that, Louise looked up at the white haired man, blinking incredulously. "Success? How in all the layers of the Underworld does _THAT _constitute as success?" she pointed at the crater. "It was a complete and utter FAILURE!" she yelled in both frustration and disappointment, her nerves fraying. "I failed, again! Even foreign magic is useless to me!"

Balmung simply stood there and let Louise rant before saying, "It was both a successful and failed endeavor." he insisted. "It failed but it worked. Maybe not as intended, but you still cast a fire spell. That almost looked like the Me Vak Kruz spell." he muttered the last bit to himself.

"Yeah, one that nearly BLEW ME UP!"

The knight sighed, "I saw what went wrong, Louise."

Louise practically hissed at him, "Then do tell, oh-wise-and-holy-knight," she demanded sarcastically, "what went wrong?"

Balmung crossed his arms tolerantly, his patience with her already wearing away. "From what I saw, not only was the spell several times stronger than what it could handle, but a second element was mixed into the fire magic of the scroll." The immortal knight rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "There appeared to be some white wisps of magic. I haven't seen anything quite like it before. It certainly felt odd…" The magic behaved like and odd combination of lightning riding on wind currents, snapping chaotically in a whirlwind of movement, but was hot like fire. It also had a thick, grainy feel to it but at the same time, the magic flowed out like a fount of water. It was an odd combination on his senses. "Could that second unknown element be the void I've been hearing about…?"

"I'm… that can't be possible." Louise denied and dismissed the very thought. "It is said that only Founder Brimir could use the void. Besides, even then, there is no _real _evidence the void is anything more than a myth; there's no journals or guidebooks, no spells or anything, just a bunch of stories told to the people by the Church of The Founder in Romania. It's not real."

"But all myths and legends of such intricacy hold a grain of truth, else wise history would have long forgotten them." Balmung retorted, thinking of the legendary epic poem that was the Epitaph of Twilight. Despite the fact that he was one of a handful of people who were directly involved with the Twilight Incident and fought back the Phases of the Cursed Wave, very few people outside the Twilight Knights knew it was an actual event in history and not just a story.

Louise, however remained adamant on her denial. "Just drop it." she ordered as she stomped away.

The holy knight sighed with a shake of his head and followed after her. She was still smarting at what she thought was another failure and he didn't want her alone at the moment.

"That girl is too stubborn and hardheaded for her own good, eh partner?" Derflinger commented in exasperation.

"Aye, that she is. But considering how many times her spells have blown up in her face every time she used her magic… One can not truly blame her." he said as he watched several disgruntled, startled, and sleepy faculty members come outside to investigate the sudden explosion, many of them still in their sleeping wear with shoes and ready wands in their hands. "All we can do is help her open her eyes to the truth of her own power and protect her from misfortune until we part ways."

Derflinger sighed. "Then we'll definitely have our work cut out for us with that silly woman around."

Balmung nodded with a small chuckle as he pat his sword's pummel fondly. "That we will, my friend, that we will."


	4. Dirty Theft

"Evaluation Fair?" Balmung blinked in curiosity up at Louise from his bed of hay as he paused in polishing Derflinger's blade. The pink haired girl had just suddenly barged into the dorm room they shared in a frantic, worried frenzy. She had been talking so fast that he'd barely caught anything of what she was trying to say.

Louise nodded and said, "It's an exam held every year where all second year students must attend and show off the familiars they have summoned." she explained with crossed arms. "Not only is the entire academy going to be there, but all their families are invited too." Louise began nibbling at her thumbnail. What was even worse, in Louise's mind, was that her royal Highness, Princess Henrietta, would be coming to the fair this year. If anything were to happen tomorrow during such a monumental moment in her student career, Louise didn't think she would be able to live with the shame and embarrassment. "The guests arrive for it tomorrow, and I can't believe I _FORGOT _all about it!"

The white haired knight cocked his head to the side and gave his summoner an even stare. "And you want me to perform something during this fair?" Louise nodded. "What would you have me do? Unlike some showboats I know, I'm not fool enough to flaunt my abilities just to please a crowd. Especially when I'm trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible."

"Everyone in the school already knows you did magic. Remember your duel against Guiche." The youngest Valliere daughter retorted with crossed arms, though, technically speaking, it was more a one-sided beating than a duel. "Plus you can use a sword. There must be something crowd pleasing you can do."

Balmung nodded and shot back, "Yes, while I won't refute the fact that I'm a swordsman, and a very good one at that, most of the academy also believes you gave me some secrete Valliere family artifact that allowed me to do said magic." Louise gaped incredulously at his answer.

That was the rumor floating about. It was also the rumor he'd been encouraging since he heard it. Even if it chafed at his warrior's pride the wrong way, discretion was best. Having the school believe the scroll the second year students saw Balmung use think it came from the Valliere family served as a boon to him. While he hadn't realized it at first, being known as the lone _human_ familiar to a girl from a very prestigious family, no matter how magically inept she seemed, proved to be very attention worthy to those with loose tongues. With the rumor dissuading people of the believing in his magical prowess, supported by the fact that they haven't seen him use a single spell since then, the students and teachers were beginning to pay Balmung less attention. The servant staff, however, gave Balmung a more hospitable treatment as a result. Apparently, a commoner swordsman as a familiar was more acceptable to them than a magical one. His duel status made him seem heroic… or at the very least it symbolized something important to the servants. The head cook even went as far as to christen him with a nickname, calling him 'Our Sword' at times after Balmung had mention he was a swordsman. "_At least,_' Balmung thought, '_I know I won't be left wanting for good food or drink when I actually needed it anymore.'_

Louise huffed at the older man's resistance. "Fine, don't use your magic, but maybe you can do something at the Evaluation Fair with your sword instead?" She then straightened up, squaring her shoulders and raising her chin, pointed down at him and ordered, "As your Master, I order you to perform at tomorrow's evaluation."

Balmung clicked his tongue, at the order irritated, and gave the girl a bland look. "… You won't let this go, will you?"

Louise harrumphed and crossed her arms, her nose in the air stubbornly. "Of course not. The Evaluation is a time honored tradition. As you are my familiar, I have an obligation to present you. You must attend." she stated with a tone of finality that grated on Balmung's nerves.

The white haired man's jaw tightened minutely before he answered, "Fine, but do not expect anything extravagant, grand, or over the top from me. I will not be made to jump through flaming hoops for anyone." He avowed firmly. "If I would not do it for the king my homeland, certainly I will not do it for a group of nobles I do not even know the names of." He pressed before promptly going back to polishing Derflinger, now more than a little annoyed with his summoner.

Louise made an irritated sound before nodding in resign and left the room, leaving her familiar by himself to his own devices.

As the door clicked closed, Balmung began to realize just how little to nowhere his mission was progressing the longer he stayed within the confines of the magical academy. He also began thinking that the longer he stayed in one place, the further away his mystery quarry got from his grasp and the closer they came to unraveling the secret power of the Akashic Scales. Balmung had become so deep in thought that he hadn't noticed how much time had past since Louis left the room.

"Oi, partner, if you keep rubbing my blade so hard you're going to end up slicing your fingers off." Derflinger warned dryly.

Balmung stilled an looked down at the sword. He hadn't needed to sharpen Derflinger at all - the sword was made from enchanted steel, after all, so he hadn't needed to acquire a whet stone - and spent the last two days working off centuries worth of accumulated rust and tarnish from his weapon. He'd managed to find some good coarse blue dyed leathering to rap around the grip. Now the blade shinned brightly in the light to an almost mirror quality finish. Derflinger may not be as ornate as his normal blade, but he certainly looked good now, almost as if he was just forged, and ready for use on the battlefield. Balmung dropped the worn rag he'd been using now that it looked like it was beginning to come apart and closed the bottle of strong polish he'd had Siesta procure for him.

Standing, the holy knight slide Derflinger back into it equally clean scabbard. He latched the sheathed sword to his belt as he left the room. "Where we going?"

"I need to get out of here, Derf. I'm beginning to feel chafed." he explained as he walked down the hall. "I have been stationary for too long. I need to get on with my mission. Maybe it's time I pay Siesta a visit, see if she's heard any unusual rumors as of late."

((oO0Oo))

It wasn't long after I came down from the dorms that nearly ran into the subject of my search. The mousy, dark haired maid named Siesta was just coming out of a broom closet dragging a washing pale and a bucket full of rags, scrubbing brushes, and other cleaning utensils when I saw her.

"Hello Siesta," I called out.

She looked up and brightened at seeing me, admiration and something akin to hero worship sparkling in her eyes. A few nights ago a rather perverse Noble by the name of Mott had bought her services from the school, with all the intentions of making her the newest in a long line of young mistresses. Siesta had not liked him, but she could not refuse him either, and I certainly found her new… employer's… behavior towards women in general deplorable and unfit for the station of nobility. It had been early evening, about an hour before dinner, when I set out alone to retrieve her, inevitably forcing a duel from Mott for Siesta's contract. Ever since she had been looking at me with eyes of adoration and infatuation. Not unlike the looks several of my female friends I had seen look at Kite with. I had fought for her after all. Even though I wasn't wearing any of my knightly regalia, I suppose my actions that night might have come off as something romantic; a white knight appearing with the light of the full moon of night to battle the villain while saving the damsel in distress. The irony of that situation was not lost on me. It was something usually told of or read in tales most women liked.

The small battle had given me a small taste of how skilled and in control of their magic an experienced noble was in battle. In all truth, had Louise, Kirche, and Tabitha not tracked and followed me that night, interfering with a duel the Noblemen and I were engaged in, the entire situation would have ended with Mott dead on my blade and I, through right of conquest by mutual dueling rules agreement, would be the new lord of the Mott estate. We ended up settling on a reluctant draw, if with a conflicted attitude on Mott's part - he despised the fact he essentially lost to a 'commoner' swordsman but was rather attached to his beating heart. We ended the fight in a trade off, Siesta's contract for the Zerbst family treasure.

I had been ready to gut the fool for such a demand. Kirche agreed to the trade before I could lift Derflinger to resume the duel, saying she had already seen it and didn't need it.

…Also, Kirche's family heirloom… was not what I expected it to be. Even now I was still puzzling about that blasted book and how anyone could call it an heirloom. Really, an old erotica magazine?! And printed thirty years ago from my world too! I didn't care for the semi-nude girls posing suggestively between the yellowed pages, but I recognized the writing and the printed date on the cover. Kirche said her grandfather summoned it accidentally when he was a young teenager almost sixty years ago and since then have been passing down the family line as a wedding gift to men married into the family. It made me wonder just how close our two worlds were and how often and easily did portals between the two opened.

Ever since that night, Louise has been waiting anxiously for some kind of retaliation from the perverted Noble. So have I for that matter. Mott came across to me as a rather arrogant and vindictive man who wasn't used to not getting his way. And considering that I'm a 'commoner' familiar who shamed the reputation of the perverse Noble, my actions reflected on Louise and her family. Yet, it had been three days now and still, no retributive complaints from the man. I was beginning to wonder….

"Ah, Mister Balmung! Can I help you?" she asked eagerly, cheeks flushing prettily, bringing me back to the present.

"Actually, yes. But lets walk as we talk." Like a gentleman, I relieved her of the loaded wash pale before following her to wherever her destination was, saying, "I came to ask if you've heard of any unusual rumors lately?" I asked. "I have made no progress gathering information on my own, and being stationary has not helped me any."

She blinked her wide dark eyes at me in slight confusion before lighting up in a 'Ah-ha' moment and recognition of what I was talking about. "Oh, right! I haven't heard of much, but I overheard one rumor that was interesting. I heard several servants talking back at Count Mott's estate about it. Recently there have been word about a string of thefts from several prominent noble homes. Most of what was stolen were jewelry and coins-"

My brow dipped. That wasn't quite what I was looking for. "Sounds like simple robbery to me."

Siesta shook her head and looked at me with slight impatience at my interruption. "Yes, but some of the things that were stolen were not just a few bags worth of coins and jewels. Rumor says that among the stolen goods were several very powerful artifacts and secret magical heirlooms. Not only that, but no matter how fortified with guards or what kind of protective magicks the homes that were robbed had, the thief always managed to get in and get out before anyone noticed." the dark haired maid informed. "This thief has been terrorizing the noble families for quite some time now."

Now this piqued my interest. Petty thievery of jewels and wealth, while it made me itch to hunt down the culprit(s), if only to see justice done, was not high on my list of priorities. However, robbery of supposedly powerful objects of magic was intriguing, to say the least. Especially if this person or persons were able to bypass magical protections, slip into guarded homes unnoticed, steal whatever they were after, and leave undetected. That took skills…The same kind of skills one would need to successfully infiltrate a sealed temple and steal an important artifact with the potential to cause worldly destruction in the wrong hands.

"The thief, do they at least know a name?"

Siesta looked thoughtful for a moment as she tapped her shin. "Hmm, I believe… the thief calls themselves Fouquet, Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt." I nodded at this bit of knowledge. Finally, I had something I hoped was a lead. With any luck, this might point me towards the Akashic Scales.

Walking out to the breezy morning air of the courtyards, she seemed to be heading towards the greenhouses on the school grounds, I was met with the sight of all of the second year students and their familiars dotting around the area. The array of varying creatures looks to be practicing all sorts of tricks using their own natural abilities or what their masters were coaching them in doing. "Is all this for the Evaluation Fair tomorrow?"

Siesta looked over at all the young nobles and their familiars and nodded. "Yes, but it seems everyone is putting in more effort than usual. It must be because Her Majesty, is coming tomorrow so they have to work extra hard to impress her and win the royal prize."

"I see." I said as we continued on our way. I guess I can now understand why Louise was fretting so much earlier. Having a princess in the audience could put a great deal of pressure on anyone.

((oO0Oo))

Fireworks shot up and exploded in the in the afternoon, decorating the heavens in puffs of blue, red, and yellow. Streamer popped and confetti swirled down as a long procession of luxurious carriages of varying sizes and craftsmanship carrying affluent Nobles were pulled along the road into the Tristain Academy of Magic's grounds. Headmaster Osmond and the members of the teaching staff stood along the steps of the Academy's main entrance, greeting the parents of his many students warmly as they came.

Balmung stood in the crowd of students alongside Louise watching the parading aristocrats make their entrances, hearing the names of many lords and ladies, barons and baronesses, and dukes and duchess be announced loudly. Louise seemed a little put out when no announcement for the Valliere family came. The chibi pinkette gave the excuse that her family were a rather busy lot and probably didn't have the time to make it; her father was a duke of significant influential power so he spent a lot of time at the palace, her mother was a woman who had too much to do running the Valliere estates. She didn't care for her eldest sister coming, saying it was probably safer for her that way, whatever that meant, and her second older sister had always been a sickly woman and wasn't allowed long distance traveling anyway.

They were decent excuses, but Balmung still didn't like it.

It wasn't until the line of carriages came to the end did the last two and most important of them all, flanked by mounted knights, finally pull into the drive of the castle, the princess' entourage. The first of them was reserved for the servants; being rather small and plain in appearance, painted a solid navy color, pulled by only a single horse. The second coach was by far the grandest and a quite a bit larger than any other carriage Balmung had seen so far. The royal carriage was a pristine virgin white color accented with painted lavender rose designs and elegant gold arches while four beautiful golden horned unicorns. Trotting up behind was the royal guard of some twenty mounted knights.

"Announcing Her Royal Highness of Tristain, Queen Henrietta!"

When the royal coach came to a stop and the queen's Honor Guard dismounted, all the students around seemed to lean forward as one in anticipation to see their princess-like Queen as the crowd's whispers meshed into indiscernible words. It wasn't very often the young royal left her castle for any given reason unless the powers in charge of her protection and welfare allowed it. Balmung watched on impassively as pair of maids opened the carriage door and helped the princess out.

Once he caught sight of her, of Queen Henrietta, Balmung could honestly say the young royal was not quite what he was expecting. With all the pomp and lavished flair going into the fair, and given the extravagant way the Nobles presented themselves today, he was surprised. The Azure Knight had half imagined her to look like the typical supercilious fairytale princess type; a princess that wore a big sparkly dress with brightly colored petticoats and frills of the finest silk, pinching high heeled shoes, long hair that bounced in wide curls, gaudy jewelry and a heavy crown, and a mask of make-up while smelling like she had repeatedly bathed in pungently sweet perfume that would make him gag. He half expected a flaunting peacock. Instead, he found the young royal to be rather minimally adorned, yet that just somehow made her seem all the more elegant for it. She wore an simple long-sleeved white gown of silk with reasonable pair of matching heels and a purple cape decorated only by several teal colored jewels bound in silver at her neck and a small bejeweled silver tiara in her shoulder length plume colored hair. Her face was bare of make-up save for the bit of light pink gloss on her lips as her skin was unblemished and smooth like a flower's petal. She also seemed rather gentle looking, mild mannered even, and yet she radiated royal grace and poise with little effort. If it weren't for the extravagance surrounding her, Balmung could very easily picture her dressed comfortably in commoner's garb and not look out of place.

I also found it slightly odd that a young lady of her age bore the title of Queen. She looked no older than the students cheering her name. Then again, history was full of stories of child Kings and Queens whose parents died because of illness, battle, or royal-court subterfuge…

The crowd erupted into an endless stream of wild cheers like a group of fans after seeing their favorite idol/celebrity - the only exceptions were Kirche, who was too busy critically comparing her exotic looks against the princess' classic beauty, and Tabitha, who had gone back to reading her book after sparing the royal an analytical glance.

Balmung looked down at Louise when she gave a dreamy sigh. He found her staring at the young queen who was conversing with the respectfully kneeling Headmaster. The pinkette had a small proud smile as she looked wistfully at Princess Henrietta, unmindful of her classmates as they tittered excitedly with praise and compliments. The white haired knight raised a fine brow at the expression before slowly disentangling himself from the crowd. He still had a few hours yet of daylight left to burn and decided to use his time practicing with Derflinger.

((oO0Oo))

The afternoon had progressed quickly into the night until it was barely an hour before curfew when Louise and I were about to turn in. The young Valliere wanted to go to sleep early so we could wake up early, not that it made much of a difference to me since I usually woke with the sun anyway. However, at the moment, Louise was beginning to fret over tomorrow and trying to badger me about my presentation. I was dutifully tuning out her noise as I stood in front of a mirror with a wash basin and rag giving myself a light bath. It was amusing to watch Louise's initial reaction the first time she walked in on me while I did this. She had just finished a long tiring day of classes - I myself spent the morning in the library learning how to read this world's language from a very helpful Siesta and the afternoon was spent sword training outside - and had just walked in. Louise yelped and blushed fiercely in embarrassment, her wide eyes taking in my half bared form. Apparently Louise was both innocent and naive about the male anatomy. She slapped her hand over her eyes and barely managed squeaking out a demand about what I though I was doing in my state of undress. I had informed her that as a 'commoner' I had been barred from the baths when I tried enter them. Louise sputtered before pointedly looked away as she seated herself at the table to start her homework. It did not take me long to notice her sneaking peeks me as I was finishing. She went redder than a Piney Apple in the middle of summer and turned away every time I caught her.

I couldn't help but smirk at the memory as I went through my nightly rituals before I hit the hay. I always found it odd how she would get all flustered at seeing me without my shirt, but was calm about standing naked if front of me.

Of course, my pointed snubbing of her worrying of what unknown woes that may befall her tomorrow only served to rile her up more.

I could feel the mounting tension between us as Louise looked like she was preparing to unleash her peaking fury, a hand slowly sneaking for a horsewhip she often times broke out when she wanted to try hitting me (not that I would let her). She was looking to have a row with me, again. My ears were saved from her insistent and pending yelling when a soft knocking came from the door. We both paused, blinking in unison, wondering who could be out and about so close to curfew.

I pulled a clean shirt out from my item bag and slipped it on before going to open the door. "Yes? Can I hel-" I began as I answered it but was cut off. I was more or less shoved aside as a cloaked figure pushed their way in… or at least they tried to. The moment the intruder tried to rush past me, instinct and reflex took over. I snatched the person by their arms and forced them back until I had them pinned to the door, eliciting a surprised squeak from them. Even though I couldn't see much of a face, I didn't need to inspect my catch much to recognize I had captured a woman; her small, slender body, coupled with that feminine squeak and light make-up on her. The fact I could also smell a light fragrance of rose and feel a woman's… assets, lightly brushing against me was also most telling.

Louise was also surprised by the sudden intrusion but managed to whip out her wand and point it at the little trespasser. "W-who are you?" she demanded with a slight stutter.

"…Lou-Louise Francoise!" the intruder called out in a panicky plea and struggled around. Her hood slid off as she tried to slip from my hold. I heard Louise's breath hitch and gasp behind me as I finally saw who our unexpected visitor was.

"Princess?!" she yelped in surprise, then ordered hastily, "Balmung, let her go!" My hands immediately released the young royal as I backed away. Once I put a sufficient amount of distance between us, Queen Henrietta (or Princess, as Louise called her) shot forward around me and threw her arms around Louise in a hug. "Are you okay?" she questioned with genuine concern. "That brute familiar of mine didn't hurt you did he?" she threw a narrow eyed accusing look at me as she said this, inching the royal around until she was more between me the plum haired girl. The little brat had a lot of nerve, insulting me and acting as if I was purposely going to harm the queen after confirming her identity. "Princess, what are you doing here at such an hour, without an escort no less? Anything could have happened to you."

The Queen pulled back with a slightly sheepish smile and shook her head. "No, it's okay, I'm fine."

"Princess," Louise began as she lowered herself down on one knee, "I, Louis Francoise Lu Blanc de La Valliere, take responsibility for the actions of my familiar's rude and loutish manhandling of you."

I took the moment to approach the pair, the young royal watching me with somewhat wary eyes. "You Majesty, I must apologize for earlier handling of you. You surprised me. I could not see your face under your hood and your sudden rush into the room made me react defensively." I explained, hoping I hadn't frightened or angered her too badly. It wouldn't do to have the contempt of a royal; angry royalty could easily harass and cause problems for anyone in no small amounts. "Please accept my humble apologies, Lady Queen." I bowed at the waist respectfully.

"Oh, no… it's fine. Really!" she assured awkwardly. "I suppose I too am at fault. I had not meant to startle anyone, Mr. Familiar." I nodded in acceptance.

"Please, do me the honor of using my name, Balmung, fair Queen Henrietta."

Henrietta smiled charmingly, "I shall, but I would prefer being addressed as 'Princess'. Queen is not a title I feel I am yet ready or worthy to bare the weight of." she said lowly, the air about her seemed both despondent and petulant. The princess gave a weak smile before turning her attention back to Louise.

From there the princess had stayed in our room for the better part of an hour. In all that time I had come to learn that Louise and Princess Henrietta were in fact good childhood friends and playmates, no matter how formal and respectful Louise tried to act with the young royal. The princess was adamant about being casual and open with the one person she valued most as her loyal friend. Most of the conversations were between the two girls reminiscing of days long past and catching up with more recent happenings in their lives. I mostly stayed out of the dialogs - some of the topics shared were not the kind most men would want sit in on, myself included, only talking when I was directly spoken to - and listened with only half an ear. This was how Louise and I found out in finer detail about Henrietta's grudging and recent ascension to Queen; my earlier thoughts were half correct when she mentioned her father's death via illness and her mother's utter refusal to perform her Queenly duties as ruler in his place. This in turn forced her too young daughter to take the throne. We also learned from the princess about the lack of retribution against us from Count Mott. Mott had complained, even exaggerating the truth more than a little, but the princess cherished her friendship with Louise so much as to prevent repercussions from my actions. The princess apparently also had double intentions in coming besides attending the Evaluation Fair tomorrow; she not only wanted to reunite with her friend, but also sought to meet me, wanting to know about the rumored about human familiar who was willing and able to stand against a nobleman. I had answered several questions about myself, but nothing too personal, and despite earlier misunderstandings, the princess and I got on well. The visit ended about an hour after 'lights out' with my summoner and I seeing the royal off and having her wish me luck tomorrow, though she was a bit solemn looking as she went.

In hindsight, I realized belatedly that Louise's 'early to bed, early to rise' plan hadn't worked out at all. She was almost dead on her feet when it was time to get up.

((oO0Oo))

The day of the fair was not quite what Balmung had in mind when he thought what a fair was suppose to be like. If anything, this fair was more along the lines of a PTA meeting. There was school touring of classrooms to show off the achievements of the students after breakfast, lunch, the afore mentioned PTA meeting doubled as a giant tea party followed after, and finally, well into the afternoon, came the highlight of the day. The actual evaluation was something of a combination between a year wide version of show-and-tell/talent show for second years. The courtyard where the debut of familiars was not all that extravagantly decorated, only a few lines of brightly colored miniature flags hanging here and there, several roses framed signs, and a somewhat colorful stage. Princess Henrietta and Headmaster Osmond had a large opened canopy tent completely to themselves next to several long cushioned pews that were brought out to accommodate students and visiting nobles.

Balmung watched as familiar after familiar displayed their learned talents and natural abilities ( Flame the Salamander's perfect control of fire, Robbin the Frog's hopping dance to the Violin, Cubasil the Owl's aerial acrobatics, and Verdandi the Giant Mole's… well, all it did was lay in a pile of roses as Guiche posed on it like a lady's calendar pin-up boy ). The most impressive of the familiars had been Sylphid the Dragon's flight because, quite frankly, very little was more outstanding or impressive than a dragon taking wing.

"Listen," Louise started as she watched Sylphid fly barrel rolls with Tabitha directing her, "when we're called, just walk up there and bow. Don't to anything else."

Violet eyes moved down in a sideward look. "That's it?"

Louis nodded. "I'll just introduce you and then we'll leave the stage. You don't need to do anything since you already gained the Princess' favor last night."

"I see. What a shame," Balmung said baitingly as he looked away, " and here I had a routine I was going to use and everything. Such a waste."

"W-what?!"

Louise was cut off from saying anything else when Professor Colbert, the announcer of the show, called, "Now, next up is Louise de La Valliere and her familiar!"

The crowd clapped, the students in an almost lofty way while the visitors clapped in a more obligated form of passive politeness, as Louise took a moment to straighten herself before rigidly leading her human familiar out onto the stage with a raised chin. As she walked out with Balmung at her side to take the stage, trying to ignore the shouts and mock cheers from her classmates to 'do her best' and 'good luck Louise the Zero', while curiously spying a large and roughly rectangular slab of rock Professor Colbert was levitating to stand upright near the center stage. The pink haired girl flushed as embarrassment and anger filled her. She could see from the corner of her eye the tent that accommodated the princess and dared not to looked to see her childhood playmate's face. As they came to stand before the spectators, her classmates grew quiet in waiting.

Squaring her shoulders and presenting a strong front, Louise spoke out loudly and clearly, "My name is Louise, and this is my human familiar, Balmung!" she gestured to the man at her side, trying to look as calm an nonchalant as possible. "And he's a… he's a commoner!"

It was painfully quiet for a moment before faint snickering began to rise up. Louise's shame colored her face even deeper and tears pricked at the edges of her eyes as the crowd laughed uproariously. At the first hint of the noise, Balmung took a single step towards the rock, drawing Derflinger smoothly, and swung his sword several times in quick fluid motions almost too fast to be seen. When Balmung sheathed Derflinger again, the crowds loud snickering and laughs suddenly chocked silent when sharp cracks and the sound of stone sliding against stone filled the air. The large slab of rock fell apart on the floor in several cleanly sliced pieces. The audience was stunned at the display.

"That is correct!" Balmung said loudly over the now stunned audience, looking completely unfazed. He was projecting an air of a proud warrior and the cool indifference of a dignified aristocrat looking down upon an assembly of rowdy plebian. It was something only the Headmaster, the visiting princess and her guards, and only Professor Colbert had picked up on. "I am a 'commoner', but I am also a master swordsman! I am a worldly warrior who has traveled great distances far into lands beyond these boarders, honing my skills and perfecting my art, felling both foul men and beast alike. With a sword in my hand, there are few challenges I would not, could not, rise to." The white haired man announced. He then glanced at Louise and gestured her towards the left stage exit.

Louise gave a subtle if slightly awed nod. The pink haired girl gave the crowd a polite bow before she ushered them both off stage and away. Professor Colbert retook the stage to announce the next new student and familiar pair just as the two disappeared from sight.

(oO0Oo)

"… You're… pretty strong, you know." Louise muttered awkwardly as we traveled the academy grounds. "With a sword I mean." I simply nodded in agreement. I know exactly what I was capable of after all. "I was… really surprised."

"As well as most of the crowd." I couldn't help feeling a bit smug for a moment. We may have been received with mocking and humor by the audience in the beginning, but I made sure to leave them gapping in the end. "Though I doubt we won." Sylphid was a beautiful beast and the fact alone that she was a dragon tamed was all that was needed to secure Tabitha the first place victory. Even in my world, any kind of business with dragons was a perilous business with a high mortality rate. The blue drake may not be the biggest or fiercest looking dragon I've ever seen, she was more cute than intimidating really, but that didn't make her any less dangerous.

Louise nodded. "I guess…"

It was as we were coming around the corner that were we stopped cold in our tracks at the sight before us.

"A golem!?" Louise exclaimed, freezing in fright.

The golem was huge, a veritable juggernaut that stood looming over everything like a titan in a small world, and was made completely of earth with patches of grass and trees here and there. It had only the bare basics of a humanoid figure with overly long arms and a misshaped head with crooked 'eyes'. Its was slow and lumbering, yet its movements held the overwhelming strength of the earth it was derived from. At the moment it was using said immense strength to batter unsuccessfully at an unyielding and mostly translucent barrier around the main tower of the academy.

The golem's relentless assault paused and it turned. Louise's loud outburst had drawn its attention, or rather, she had drawn the attention of the mostly hidden rider that controlled the artificial beast. The rider was a woman, that much was obvious because despite the black hood and cloak she wore. Balmung could see a smirk, sharp and full of ill-intent, stretch across the visible features of her face.

"It looks like I've been stumbled upon, such bad luck. Sorry, I can not allow witnesses, I'm afraid!" the woman called out as her golem reared a massive fist to strike at us.

"Get back!" yelled, somewhat roughly pushing a surprised Louise out of the way while drawing Derflinger. "Run Louise!"

I dove to the side as more or less a ton of earth crashed down on my previous position. I moved away again as the Golem swung its other fist down on me. "I see you must be skilled, you move well, for common swordsman." the woman thief called. "But you're still in my way!" She touched her hand to the earthly construct's arm and one of the spikes on its wristbands suddenly launched at me. I swung Derf at the flying spike and, like earlier on stage, cleaved the incoming stone in two. Absently, I noticed how I suddenly felt different; like back when I 'dueled' Guiche, in the moment where I speared the boy's brass construct, I felt stronger and lighter on my feet somehow. I noted the dim glow on the back of my hand gradually grow brighter.

I darted forward, ducking under a massive stone fist that swatted at me, and swung Derflinger. It was almost too easy as my stroke cut much more cleanly through the stone and hard packed dirt than normal. I severed the giant hand at the wrist.

The golem's rider growled at me in agitation. "Not bad, swordsman, but I'm not done yet!" A pulse of yellow colored magic rippled through the earth construct and the freshly amputated appendage suddenly regenerated back with surprising speed and morphed. The stone hand unexpectedly transmuted into a iron hammer head. "I'll crush you now!"

Judging by speed it regenerated and transmuted at, I now know I was dealing with a Triangle class mage, at the very least. This could be a real problem. The golem's arm rose, I raised Derflinger and prepared to move…

"I won't allow it!" Louise's shouted. I turned to look and found the small noble had barely moved away from the spot I had shoved her to earlier. She held her wand up and chanted under her breath. Within seconds, she called out, "Fireball!" For a moment, nothing seemed to happen. Then a small chunk of the golem's shoulder violently sheared off as an abrupt explosion erupted behind it.

The woman laughed as Louise looked on in horror at her missed attempt to destroy the earth golem. "That was pathetic-" her laughter cut off and a sharp crack sounded. We all turned to see the wall of the main tower had gained a large and ominously growing spider web crack. Somehow or another, Louise's misfired spell had done what the cloaked woman's golem could not; her spell broke through the barrier around the main tower. "Perfect!" The amazed woman quickly fired off several earthly spells at me from the body of the golem. As I was forced to dodge a number of flying boulders, the woman had her beast hammer its fist through the now weakened defenses and wall before darting along the limb and into the breach. She came out only moments later, clutching a long box to her chest.

"I must thank you for your help!" I growled in vexation by her mocking declaration.

By this time the loud commotion brought on by all the fighting had finally drawn the students, staff and visiting guests, most of them gasped in shocked fright at the sight of the golem and its rider. Only the royal guard, the Headmaster and Professor Colbert drew their swords and wands/staffs to defend the academy. "It seems we've drawn a crowd. No matter, I must be on my way now that I have successfully taken the Staff of Destruction!" she called down to us in glee as she raised the long box the staff was contained in.

Staff of Destruction… that didn't sound very good. I couldn't help but wonder why something with such an ominous name was being safeguarded at a school, of all places.

The thief again touched the golem with her magic to command it. The earthen made beast rose both arms high in a haymaker and slammed them down on top of where Louise and I stood. I lunged for Louise and all but tackled us out of the way of the crushing blow. The heavy concussive attack shook the very ground with all the force of an earthquake, causing several large slabs of earth to heave up mightily. The move also kicked up clouds of dust and dirt, effectively blinding and throwing almost everyone off their feet. The royal guards was almost dog piled protectively on top of the young Queen.

By the time the wind picked up enough to blow the floating dust away, the Golem and it's rider were gone.


End file.
